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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J 



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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



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THE 



ARKof^PEOPLR 



BY 



PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 



• IT IS THY HEAD THAT LEADS THE TAIL. DO YOU WISH TO 
KNOW HOW EVERYTHING SHALL END? KNOW FIRST HOW 
EVERYTHING HAS BEGUN." 



Translated from the French 

BY A FRIEND OF CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION, 



Philadelphia: ._ 

Peter F. Cunningham, Catholic Bookseller" 

No. 29 South Tenth Street, 

&73- 





2S/t 1 - 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

PETER F. CUNNINGHAM & SON, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 



CONTENTS. 



PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION 7 

WHY THIS ARK HAS BEEN BUILT 15 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO'S ADVICE TO HIS HEARERS 27 

FIRST ENTERTAINMENT. 

Why our nature is so perverse, and how it may be improved — 
What religion is, and how many kinds there are 29 

SECOND ENTERTAINMENT. 

Symbol of the faith and morals of Atheists and Pantheists — How 
we can cure them or dismiss them 38 

THIRD ENTERTAINMENT. 

Creed of the Deists — What we should become with their gospel of 
nature and animal papacy — Way of vanquishing them... 48 

FOURTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Deistical pelf- worshippers judged by the pontiffs and magistrates 
of their choice — Why we are born more ignorant than animals 
— Duty of our first Father, Teacher, and Master 56 

FIFTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Were our first parents foundlings? — Some of the patriarchs 
of deism— Education of Adam and Eve — Their destiny and 
ours 68 

3 



4 Contents. 

SIXTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Necessity of trial and combat — Man's defeat — Dialogue with a 
free-thinker .' 80 

SEVENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Of what God could have done, and of what He did — Futility and 
injustice of our complaints 91 

EIGHTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Amenities of ancient paganism in matters of belief, morals and 
social institutions 101 

NINTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Why the slaves were so patient— Servile Wars — Amenities of the 
pagan family — Imperial cruelty — To whom we owe the aboli- 
tion of the worship of tigers 116 

TENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Answer to an objection of the progressionists — Reflections on 
the work of the Propagation of the Faith— A glance at the 
social progress of the Chinese, Hindoos and Turks 130 

ELEVENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Revolution operated by Christianity — What we should have to 
think of Europe if Jesus were not God — Silliness of the objec- 
tions urged against the Christian faith 145 

TWELFTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Necessity for the lesson of Calvary — Immensity of its results. - 157 

THIRTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Why the world has not been converted by a sudden stroke of 
policy — Rapidity and universality of apostolic preaching — 
Reasons of the infidelity of so many nations 167 

FOURTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Three successive forms of Christianity — Present form — Valua- 
tion of two methods of propagandism 179 



Contents. 5 

FIFTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Catholic method — Catholicism of Protestants — Reply to their 
objections — The aim of their principle — Necessity for an infal- 
lible power 193 

SIXTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Remedy against fear of the abuse of infallibility — Necessity of 
infallibility for the liberty of all, particularly of the people. 203 

SEVENTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

What the people owes to its modern friends, and what it owes 
to Jesus Christ — Comparison between Catholic institutions 
and revolutionary institutions — Who are the people's true 
friends 215 

EIGHTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

What Christian civilization is — Why it has made so little pro- 
gress — Authors and partisans of schism and heresy, and their 
manner of proceeding — How a nation can baffle it, or how it 
may become its plaything 232 

NINETEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Curious comparison between two species of monsters — Why so 
many of the reformers are still honored — Popularity of Angli- 
canism 245 

TWENTIETH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Character of the Papacy — Its establishment in Rome— Its connec- 
tion with the empire become Christian — Reflections on the 
omnipotent State 262 

TWENTY-FIRST ENTERTAINMENT. 

Temporal dominion of the Popes — Its origin — Its necessity — 
Napoleon's sentiments — Answer to difficulties 276 

TWENTY-SECOND ENTERTAINMENT. 

Cause of the contests between the Holy See and the ancient 
governments — Pretended abuse of excommunication — End and 
consequence of religious spoliation — Value of the reproaches 

addressed to the clergy 289 

L* 



6 Contents. 



TWENTY-THIRD ENTERTAINMENT. 

Reasons for the privileges of the ecclesiastical tribunals— Immu- 
nity of the holy place — Of the number of festivals — What the 
people gain by the abasement of the clergy 308 

TWENTY-FOURTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Efforts of modern Europe to secularize everything — Who have 
undertaken this great work, and what they have gained by 
it 321 

TWENTY-FIFTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Catholic Inquisition — Conduct towards the Church of all those 
who accuse her of intolerance — The .Church's constant rule 
against infidels 336 

TWENTY-SIXTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Why the Inquisition was established — Character and struggles 
of the Middle Ages — Comparison of that epoch with ours — A 
word on the Spanish Inquisition — Roman Inquisition.... 353 

TWENTY-SEVENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Galileo's condemnation — Exploits of Protestant and infidel in- 
quisitors — Reflection 375 

TWENTY-EIGHTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Answer to the last objections against the Church and the priest- 
hood 392 

TWENTY-NINTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Poverty of the solutions proposed by man — Grandeur of the 
solution prepared here below and decreed on high 413 

THIRTIETH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Temporary consequences of the European solution — Eternal solu- 
tion for the human race ■ 432 



CONCLUSION 447 



'^*^7%^ a '" > 



PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION. 



'HE work entitled the "Ark of the People," 
is presented to the public with full confi- 
dence that it will be found instructive, edi- 
fying, and entertaining. It treats of subjects of 
the greatest interest in a religious, moral, and 
political point of view. With remarkable ability 
it scatters the darkness now brooding over the 
minds of the masses, and brings into clear light 
the principles which must be understood and 
practised, to insure the welfare of every age and 
nation. The author treats with great skill the 
conspiracy against the sovereignty of Heaven, 
probes its grossness and inveteracy, unravels its 
complicated ignorances, and exposes its malignity. 
The false pretences of modem thought, advanced 
science, and refined civilization, are exposed in all 
their deformity and deceit, so that we can perceive 
the convulsions now tormenting society to be 
really a retrograde tendency to the obscurantism 

7 



8 Preface to the Translation. 

of the dreariest epochs of ancient stupidity and 
depravity. An impartial examination of the opera- 
tions in every department of physical and mental 
toil, except whatever appertained to materialistic in- 
dustry, exhibits a displacement of all the elements 
requisite for the construction and maintenance of 
a social system, prosperous and happy, in harmony 
with religion and morality. In fact, Christianity 
is now substituted by Gentilism of the meanest type. 
The disquisitions of our author guide us to this 
conclusion, for we are excited to reflect on the 
revolutions, disturbances, and political corruption ; 
the heresy, infidelity, and atheism ; the colloquial 
blasphemy; the discarded devotion; the innova- 
tions of divorce, the magisterial and senatorial pro- 
fligacy; the obscenity in literature, dramatic or 
general; the homicide or infanticide; the swind- 
ling, gambling, profusion, suicide and parricide, 
that, more or less, infect and disgrace the nations. 
Were we disposed to refine a little, we might add 
the tendency to exalt and extenuate genius, energy, 
audacity, success, irrespective of intrinsic worth, 
nay, often united to intense depravity; forgetful of 
the revealed and reasonable maxim, "To whomso- 
ever much is given, of him shall be much required, 
and to whom men have committed much, of him 
they will ask the more." 

So in some recurrence to the heroic mythology 



Preface to the Translation. 9 

of ancient times, as well as in some advance to 
the antichristian idolatry of future, Mohammed, 
Harry the Eighth, Cromwell, Mazzini, Gasparoni, 
Dick Turpin, Victor Emmanuel, Garibaldi, Jack 
Shepherd, Bismarck, and similar demigods, have 
found, not only admirers of their abilities, but 
apologists of their crimes, of their imposture, their 
turpitude, their sacrilege, their avarice, plunder 
and murder. Sensual sagacity, vulpine cunning 
and animal energy are preferred to principle and 
brave self-denial. The end justifies the means, 
and success constitutes the test of virtue, capable 
of altering the nature of things and the eternal 
principles of right. The traitor is by victory 
metamorphosed into the hero, and becomes the 
greatest man of the age and the idol of posterity. 
The immorality or infidelity of the past is over- 
looked, so long as the vehicle of it be the music 
of the siren. The poetic parallel of ancient Rome 
towards the close of the republic, and under the 
sway of the empire, in point of constitutional 
degeneracy, might be illustrated by a continuous 
chain of medical testimony, for many years of 
apostasy and revolution, down to the universal 
conviction of contemporary physicians. For con- 
sider but a little and it will appear plain, that 
the withdrawal of the monastic and celebate con- 
tracts of poverty and chastity, coupled with the 



io Preface to the Translation. 

abandonment of such Christian and scriptural pre- 
servatives as confession, fasting and abstinence, 
must have led to serious changes in the national 
conscience and constitution. Among other con- 
sequences, as we may observe incidentally, came 
the inconveniences of repletion ; these our fore- 
fathers endeavored to remedy by bleeding and 
purging, as before they had fasted in spring and 
autumn, and now their descendants can neither 
endure bleeding, purging, nor fasting, hence so 
many new and sudden diseases of heart, brain, 
spine, etc., and so much paralysis and apoplexy, 
and similar results of the Deformation by Satan, 
Luther, Calvin and Co. 

We will not dwell on the increase of insanity, 
which, among other considerations, may not unrea- 
sonably be inferred from the general impairment 
of constitution ; the prevalence of nervous disor- 
ders to an extent, if not also of a kind, not known 
in former ages ; the exciting and depressing influ- 
ence of many trades and occupations, subservient 
to a highly artificial state of pseudo-civilization ; 
the premature, unsanctioned and ill-regulated sen- 
suality; the free use of alcoholic stimulants, espe- 
cially whisky; the sedentary and self-indulgent 
habits of society; the mutability of events, the pre- 
cipitance of life, the very conflicts of liberty itself, 
the misery of competition, the multitude of busi- 



Pre/ace to the Translation, 1 1 

ness, the inability to procure employment or sub- 
sistence, the disregard of prudence and the absence 
of reflection : above all, the self-reliance and con- 
tempt of the principle of authority in matters of 
faith and duty, with the consequent neglect of 
religious and moral discipline, both aggravated by 
the substitution of a false and frivolous philosophy, 
and the superficial and sensational character of 
general literature. We cannot avoid judging the 
present age to be not merely imperfect, but inferior 
in some grave respects of truth and wisdom, to 
many of its predecessors. The philosophy of the 
present age is often false, and liberty tends to 
licentiousness. Who, in former times, would have 
so much as dreamt of divorce, and thus paved the 
way to the acceptance of polygamy, the less evil, 
and for which more scripture may be pleaded, 
however fallaciously in either instance, than for 
the dissolution of God's own foundation of society? 
Who have attempted such modes of insevere, 
undisciplined, frivolous, and indiscriminate educa- 
tion, imparting unserviceable knowledge, disre- 
garding solid facts, charging the memory, not 
developing the reason and exercising the under- 
standing, so as to constitute habits of judgment 
and reflection, application and attention, and tend- 
ing to make the various classes of society dissatis- 
fied with their position, conceited of themselves, 



12 Preface to the Translation. 

and contemptuous of their betters? More serious 
still, the present age, with all its accumulation of 
experience, circulation of knowledge, freedom of 
inquiry, and opportunity of comparing and adjudi- 
cating opinion, is so wise as not even to be of one 
mind in religion, the first of all things. On the con- 
trary, it is promised by a faction of blasphemous 
idiots, that religious unity shall be approximated by 
a pseudo-evangelical alliance who will convene to 
" agree to differ/' a plan worthy of the circus clown. 
To conclude the poetic parallel which we have 
expanded, perhaps exceeded, the present state 
of society, religiously, morally, and politically, 
corresponds t6 that of a man who is cognizant 
of his disease by its symptoms rather than its 
cause, and who therefore strives to palliate, not 
to cure it; resorting to empirical, superficial and 
temporary remedies, in contradiction to rational, 
radical and comprehensive treatment. It is a 
maxim alike medical, legal, moral and metaphy- 
sical, that " sublata causa tollitur effectus ;" remove 
the cause and the effect will cease. The cure, 
certainly like the disease, must be chronic, espe- 
cially in a body so extensively affected, and com- 
pounded of so many heterogeneous parts; but 
the great difficulty is to incline the patient to adopt 
it, for which end it is necessary that he should 
first be informed. 



Preface to the Translation. 13 

Our author exposes in a clear and scientific 
manner the hideous maladies of our society, and, 
at the same time, spurns and condemns the nau- 
seous poisons imposed upon the imbecile genera- 
tions by the robbers and assassins who now intrude 
upon every position from the throne to the pet- 
tifogger's desk. The book is therefore recom- 
mended to all those who are willing to become 
acquainted with the impiety and infamy of rebel- 
lion against Christ and His Church, and to be 
warned and protected against the adversary who 
goes about like "a roaring lion seeking whom 
he may devour." 

The publication having been made several years 
past, some transactions of the heathen and publican 
are cited which agreed with former dates. But 
the recital is fitted for our time, with the amend- 
ment that the same war is continued against the 
kingdom of God, and waged with novel atrocity, 
and more intense malignity. Credit is given 
to Austria for a former spasmodic effort to be 
honest, but since that was written, that power 
has fallen to the lowest abasement, and its rulers 
have become the lick-spittles of Satan's scavengers. 
Our readers being thus advised, it will be per- 
ceived that it was proper to avoid in this transla- 
tion any change which might otherwise be deemed 
proper, in order to avoid the seeming inaccuracy 
of dates. 



14 Preface to the Translation. 

We have been honored with the task of revis- 
ing the translation, and according to our humble 
judgment, we deem it perfectly accordant with 
sacred truth, and a correct version of the original 
most creditable to the piety and talent of the 
gifted religeuse, who has contributed zealously and 
abundantly to our Christian instruction. 

P. E. Moriarty, D. D. 




WHY THIS ARK HAS BEEN BUILT. 

Aj\yUR world, although it is six thousand years 
old, and has so often felt the rod, is none 
the less a silly child, and fully justifies the 
proverb, "A fool's head never grows gray" 

What could you expect? It is a long time 
since this idler deserted the school of wisdom, 
and took for its master the father of all follies. 

Satan said to the first man: "Laugh at the 
law of the Creator, yield to your desires, and 
you shall be as gods!" 

Sixty centuries of miseries and disappointments 
have not disabused us of that infernal deception. 
In the year of our Lord 1873, palaces, shops and 
cottages are still filled with gods in fine clothes 
and in . rags, who persist in trying to find true 
happiness on earth, where nothing is permanent 
save suffering and death. 

Say to those poor dupes: What you are now 
attempting has been tried before by millions of 

15 



1 6 Why this Ark has been Built. 

men like you; what are they now? what shall 
you yourselves be very soon? dust. 

A cradle wet with tears, a series of movements 
to and fro, of longer or shorter duration, then a 
very small hole in the earth, which shall soon be 
given to another; such is the temporal destiny 
of man, whether he be a monarch or a porter. 
What we call life is only the dance of death. 
Renounce, then, a folly which, though almost 
universal, is none the less enormous. Reason 
thus simply with yourselves: — All men, without 
exception, enter on the world with an ardent 
desire of happiness, of perfect life ; then this hap- 
piness must exist. All depart this life without 
having found it; then it must exist elsewhere. 
Among all those religions which promise perfect 
life to their believers, the Christian religion alone 
presents serious evidences of truth ; let us then 
study Christianity. 

It is thus that Reason, whose disciples you 
pretend to be, will lead you to her who is its 
mother and the Mistress of faith. 

This is to speak like good sense personified, 
Nevertheless, if out of one hundred honest people 
to whom you address this language, only ninety 
do not laugh in your face, you may esteem your- 
self happy. 

Poor ministers of Christian truth, who have to 



Why this Ark has been Built. 17 

teach us that we are not immortal gods, but can 
attain to the immortal and divine life of heaven, 
what a sad mission is yours! It has cost the lives 
of your Divine Chief, and millions of your pre- 
decessors ; it is not at all impossible, that our gods 
and demi-gods of all ranks, will yet proscribe your 
heads for the greater good of humanity. In the 
meantime, you may expect their insults and out- 
rages. In vain you rank reason, philosophy, history, 
experience, knowledge and eloquence, on your side; 
in vain you reduce to dust the silly theories which 
emanate from the crazy brain of the so-called 
philosophers; you are none the less, in the eyes of 
their dupes, the enemies of progress and enlighten- 
ment. 

Dear readers, you who form the innumerable 
body of the people to whom my Ark must open its 
vast sides, in the catastrophe which threatens us, 
allow me to explain why I have given so singular 
a name to my work. 

It is well known that folly has always more or 
less governed the world ; it is also acknowledged 
that it has moments of recrudescence, in which 
God, who tolerates it, without permitting it to 
become universal and incurable, must forcibly 
interfere in order to preserve our species. Such, 
among others, was the year of the w r orld 1656. The 
evil was so great, that after repeated warnings, He 
2* 



1 8 Why this Ark has been Built. 

was obliged to have recourse to a monster-bath. 
The bath is, in fact, admirably efficacious in cases 
of insanity, particularly when the water rises for a 
few months, fifteen cubits above the patient's heads, 
as it then did. 

Now, our present state of society is not very 
dissimilar to that immersed in the year 1656. 

The antediluvian world perished, because, as the 
Bible tells us, man had become all flesh. Ah well! 
more than three centuries have elapsed since our 
Europe, tired of being Christian, began to labor 
with all her might to reestablish the religion of the 
flesh which had been stifled in the blood of Jesus 
Christ, and His apostles and martyrs. She has 
succeeded so well that the adoration of the body 
and all that flatters it, has become the predominant 
worship everywhere. 

Take away from what we call the upper classes, 
a more or less feeble minority of true Christians, 
who remain, with our old Cathedrals, as monu- 
ments of the Middle Ages ; take away our rustic 
populations, still the friends of labor and good 
morals, but deprived of all influence since the 
State has become everything, and the State is 
the capital; take away, I say, those good people 
who pray and work, while others blaspheme, beg, 
prate and fill themselves with good cheer, what 
have you left? The innumerable world of sen- 



Why this Ark has been Built. 19 

sualists, that is to say, the innumerable multitude 
of those who, believing only in what they see 
with their two eyes, in what they can bring under 
their five senses, fear no hell but that of work 
and privation, expect no other heaven than that 
of the table and the bed, frequent no other temples 
than theatres, political assemblies, clubs, and places 
of debauchery. 

They do not wish to have the Christian society 
which prescribes to all, abstinence, labor, and 
charity. They must have a social order which 
procures them the most of honors, riches, and 
pleasures, to the least possible merit of labor and 
virtue. They desire, above all, a society free from 
the clerical and Jesuitical party, that execrable 
party which troubles the conscience of Atheists 
and Epicureans, by telling them of that prison 
of eternal fire awaiting the obstinate transgressors 
of the law of Jesus Christ. 

Nevertheless, those gentlemen disagree very 
much among themselves as to the kind of society 
they wish, and the degree of liberty to be granted 
to the appetites. Among the thousands of sects 
into which they are divided, we distinguish two 
great parties — the well-filled sensualists, or those 
on the way to the feast, called the Moderate ; and 
the hungry sensualists, called the famislicd or 
voracious. 



20 Why this Ark has been Built. 

The first, thanks to the honorable economy or 
revolutionary exploits of their ancestors, thanks 
to some wise bankruptcy, or some long and free 
draughts at the fountain of the budget, have 
created for themselves a little terrestrial paradise, 
where they would be glad to enjoy themselves, 
far from the sight of God, from the cries of misery, 
and the threats of the famished. Great partisans 
of their property and family, they feel the neces- 
sity of a religion which can hold the rabble in 
check, but they must have a religion slavish and 
supple enough to become the sentinel at the gate 
of their paradise, without ever entering it to say 
to them : "God forbids you the use of that fruit, 
and commands you to employ your superfluous 
substance for the relief of those in want of the 
necessaries of life." 

This is why, in Spain, Switzerland, and Pied- 
mont, where religion still enjoys some civil influ- 
ence, on account of its property, we have seen 
and still see, the moderate parties or demagogues, 
whether filled or famished, unite to despoil the 
Church, and put her in the pay of the people, by 
saying to the latter : Sweat a little more to support 
your priests, to preserve your churches, so that 
the surplice-wearers of the State may continue to 
tell you that theft is a great crime, unless when 
committed by statesmen, like ourselves, or when 



Why this* Ark has been Biiilt. 2 1 

there is question of the goods of the Church or 
the poor. 

The famished are fervent worshippers of self, 
who, having nothing of their own but their vices 
and the desire of satisfying them, are enraged to 
see themselves excluded from the terrestrial para- 
dise, in consequence of their commerce with the 
demons of idleness, of gaming, of wine, etc. De- 
termined to enter therein by the door, the window, 
or a breach, they make infinitely more noise than 
the well- filled, for the very simple reason that 
they are the more numerous, and that an empty 
vessel gives a louder sound than a full one. 

They clamor loudly for an equal division among 
all, and call to their aid the lower classes, whose 
arms and shoulders help them to storm the gov- 
ernment. Having once attained it, they will say 
to them, as have their predecessors: Thanks, heroic 
people, so worthy the title of sovereign ! Now let 
us divide; yours be the task of providing the 
money; ours, the duty of spending it! 

The greedy ones speak also of religion and the 
Gospel. Now the socialistic Gospel is not like 
ours, an exhortation to despoil one's self of his 
goods in favor of the indigent, to fast, or to crucify 
the flesh ; it is the divine right to gorge one's self 
with pleasures, to despoil one's neighbor, and to 
crucify all that oppose him. " Jesus," say these 



22 Why this Ark has been Built. 

new apostles, "has willed that all men live as 
brethren, and hold their goods and women in 
common, so that every one may have enough: 
death to the Jesuits, the priests, and the aristocrats 
who have corrupted the Gospel !" And to defend 
this theology, they have besides the doctor Eugene 
Sue, a few priests, excommunicated for having lived 
too freely, who, veritable Judases, but with less 
remorse than the Iscariot, will leave to others the 
task of hanging them. In fine, our modern sen- 
sualists, while equally as dissolute as those of the 
ancient world, are much more impious. In effect, 
Noah's contemporaries had only forgotten the just 
God of Eden, who had condemned our guilty 
first parents to suffering and death, but ours have 
the horrible courage to drag in the mire the God 
of charity, who died on Calvary. The gorged wish 
to make of the Saviour of souls a commissary of 
police; and of the priest, a watch-dog chained by 
the State to their doors; the famished wish to 
transform the Holy of holies into a chief of brigands 
and unclean beasts. Is it not likely that He to 
whom all power has been given in heaven and on 
earth, will cast both one and the other into the 
bath? But what shall be Europe's bath? Will 
God say to the Ocean, to the Mediterranean, to 
the North Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea: 
"Spread your waters from the heights of the 



Why this Ark has been Built. 23 

Pyrenees to the top of Mt. Blanc, and from Mt. 
Blanc to the Caucasus." 

No; thus did heaven act with mankind in its 
infancy; but with nations which Christianity has 
exalted so much, that dazzled by their own enlight- 
enment and power, they say: "We are too great 
to carry the yoke of Christ, and hear His Church." 
With such giants, I say, God may rest and let us 
do as we please. 

Our deluge is our folly, accumulated for three 
centuries, which shall soon cover us from our feet 
to our head. Look at the flood-gates of the great 
abyss, (according to the expression of the Scrip- 
ture,*) that is to say, the secret societies, the 
clubs, bad journals, coffee-houses, taverns, places 
of debauchery, etc. ; are there not enough of evil 
passions to carry destruction fifteen cubits higher 
than the highest mountains? 

Look at the cataracts of heaven, that is the 
clouds of titled ministers, either retiring or aspi- 
ring, who cover our horizon; those talkative and 
stormy parliaments, which send us a hail-storm of 
laws in torrents of phrases ; in fine, that multitude 
of vultures, nourished in the bureaucratic aviary ; 
is there not in all this, ten times more of self-suffi- 
ciency, weakness, pride, ambition and folly, than 
is necessary to cause the destruction of a society 
much less diseased than ours?" 
* Gen. vii. 11. 



24 Why this Ark has been Built 

Above, the griffons who govern or wish to 
govern us; below, the famished wolves of riots; 
we are between two fires. If we escape, it shall 
not be without a good roasting, nor without a 
good stroke from the hand of our Father who is 
in heaven, nor without great efforts from those 
w r ho believe in Him, to whom I dedicate this 
book. 

Plato Punchinello, who in the course of his 
long and mysterious existence, has thoroughly 
known the ancient and modern world, has for a 
long time been warning the rulers of Europe of 
the abyss into which they are forcing it. Al- 
though he has been so happy as to lead many 
back to the path of good sense, yet the mass of 
the people have closed their ears. 

He is not much astonished at this, seeing that 
for three hundred years, all the thunderbolts of 
heaven, and the howlings of hell, have taught 
nothing to the poor human race. 

To-day he is compelled to obey a voice which 
has for a long time been repeating to him these 
words : " Hasten, indocile prophet, to reveal what 
I have enjoined thee. Allow the blind to go into 
their dwellings, but do thou construct the Ark, 
the plan of which thou hast received, Religion 
shall be its hull, its bulwark and its rudder. On 
deck and between decks, thou shalt lodge the 



Why this ^Ark has been Built. 25 

civil societies, with their new monarchies and 
republics. 

'"The deluge of barbarity having to take the 
lead, especially in great cities where centralization 
has accumulated the sources of knowledge, there 
will yet perish more books than men. Give them, 
then, some just views of the religious, social, and 
political history of Europe, so that if she desire 
to enter the age of manhood, she may know the 
miseries of her infancy before the coming of Christ, 
the vigor and gigantic progress of her youth 
under the cross, and the miserable charlatans, 
who, after having corrupted her by their drugs, 
have dragged her expiring to the charnel-house 
of the ogres. 

"As errors, after having produced their deadly 
fruits, are very proper to set off the truth, mdke 
an extract of the most remarkable follies of the 
past and the present. Imitating the example of 
Noah, who, besides his children, caused to enter 
into the Ark the domestic animals, the fallow-deer, 
the bird of paradise and the most disgusting rep- 
tiles, give a place in your books to both the good 
and the bad, to great men, to foo's and scoun- 
drels, and mark them so plainly, that the twen- 
tieth century may be able to know them, and may 
not, like the preceding centuries, give itself up 
to the worship of the most worthless persons. 



26 Why this Ark has been Built. 

"The trial which Europe is about to undergo, 
being without example in history, her guides will 
be disconcerted, and will disagree on the manner 
of leading her. Trace then the way boldly, and 
fear not to make a wide breach in the forest of 
prejudices. 

"In fine, let thy book, written for all, be suited 
to the capacity of all, but principally of the people, 
who are much more numerous, and who, when 
not fanaticized by error, imbibe truth as others 
imbibe impious sophisms and obscene stories." 

This is what was said to Plato Punchinello by 
a voice which he knows well; it is what he has 
done first in the Reveil du Penple, which has been 
already spread over Europe, and has crossed the 
seas; it is what he is doing now in the Ark of the 
People, secured against shipwreck; what he will 
soon do, please God, in other publications, espe- 
cially in his Dictionaries, destined to complete the 
Popular Library, which is most wonderful, both 
for the amount of truths and the small number of 
volumes which it contains. 

Plato Punchinello. 

Given where the want is most pressing, 
Dec. lSth t 1850. 



PLATO PUNCHINELLO'S ADVICE TO HIS 
HEARERS. 



FTER having seriously considered what kind 
of instruction would be the best suited to 
you, my friends, I have concluded to adopt 
the familiar form of the entertainment 

But in order that these entertainments may not 
degenerate into idle talk, and that our reunions 
may have nothing in common with that which 
is called a parliament, I have the honor to tell 
you beforehand, that I reserve to myself the 
right of speech during the whole discussion. My 
reasons are, first, that through a heavenly gift, 
which I am not so foolish as to be proud of, I 
am accustomed to treat my subject so weli, that 
no one finds fault with me, except cavillers and 
simpletons, two kinds of persons rare among you, 
whom we must cure by enforcing silence on them. 
Secondly, the wish to answer all would cause an 
immense loss of time; the thread of our ideas 
would be broken every moment, and the clearest 

2J 



28 Plato Punchinello s Advice. 

things become confused. As, however, there is 
no rule without an exception, I will cheerfully 
allow two men, the Mayor and the Teacher, of 
whose intelligence and discretion I am well aware,, 
to propose to me, from time to time, any ques- 
tions they may judge useful, and also the objec- 
tions that may be current in the country. In 
my turn, I shall call upon them, and give their 
testimony with regard to matters with which 
they are more familiar than the greater number 
of you. 

Let us begin. 




THE PEOPLES ARK. 



FIRST ENTERTAINMENT, 

Why it is that our nature is so perverse, and how it mat 
be improved — What religion is, and how many kinds 
there are 

^ ANY times, my friends, you have addressed 
to yourselves the following questions: 
^wlL Whence comes it that the wolf lives in 
peace with the wolf, while man is continually 
at war with man, and the art of destroying , his 
fellow-creature is that which he honors the most? 
How is it that the only creatures endowed with 
reason are the most unreasonable? 

In reality, if animals were capable of thinking 
and speaking, they would be perfectly right in 
saying to us: Our dear masters and lords, it seems 
that among all the living species that people the 
globe, you are the most bestial. You complain of 
your miseries, and you will not see that nine-tenths 
of your evils are the fruits of your own discords. 
You all aspire to perfect good, and very few among 
you ask yourselves in what this good consists, or 
if it is possible to obtain it in this world where 
nothing perfect exists. We who have been obser- 

?9 



30 The People s Ark. 

ving you during sixty centuries, laugh when you 
speak of the natural progress of your enlighten- 
ment and civilization. What, in reality, are those 
among you doing, who despise the light that 
comes to them from heaven ? Philosophers or 
people, they do but turn in the same circle of 
extravagances and gross ignorance. 

What is needed to cause the cessation, or at 
least the diminution of this lamentable disorder in 
the human family? Obstinate fools only will not 
reply: It is necessary that the human family have 
a head, but it must be a head whose voice may be 
strong enough to be heard by all, and whose 
power shall be such that none who despise his 
commands, can hope to escape his arm. 

Now who shall this ruler of mankind be ? Shall 
he be a hero like Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, Char- 
lemagne, or Napoleon, those great ones who have 
figured in the scenes of the world? No, my 
friends, besides that the greatest men remain 
always inconsiderable in presence of the human 
race, there is not one hero who is not obliged to 
conform to the vulgar custom of dying. His 
power descends to babes still in the nurse's 
arms, or to gray-haired children ; then the old cat 
being buried, the human mice dance and quarrel 
more furiously than ever. 

The only possible sovereign of mankind is that 
infinitely wise Being, whom all souls, except the 
wilfully blind, hail as the Author and Legislator 
of the universe. 

It is only God who can make men live together 
in harmony, by saying to them : " I, alone, have 



First Entertainment. 31 

given you being; I, alone, can tell why I have 
given it you. One only God you shall adore 
and love perfectly, etc. Such is my law ; if you 
observe it faithfully you will attain to the perfect 
life I have prepared for you elsewhere ; but if you 
despise it, the punishment of your audacious folly 
will be eternal and irremediable. The present life 
is given you wherein to make your choice ; on 
leaving this world you shall receive only what 
you have chosen." 

In a word, religion, the law which God had to 
give to men at their creation, is the indispensable 
foundation of all human society. Take away this 
moral bond which turns the mind and heart to- 
wards the same truths and affections, and nothing 
remain but blind and insatiable passions, which 
make the earth a theatre of robbery and carnage. 

Many ignorant persons who know religion only 
through the calumnies of her vilifiers, imagine that 
if it be good for anything, it is, at the most, for 
the life to come. They have but little faith in the 
truth of her teachings on the affairs of eternity, 
and still less in its utility in the affairs of time. 
When we speak to them of the extreme impor- 
tance of religion, they think they display their wit 
by replying: "What concerns us most is to live; 
with us, religion is work." 

I say to those poor misguided minds: In ac- 
knowledging no other religion than that of labor, 
you will be of the same mind as an infinity of 
people, who, having embraced the religion of plea- 
sure, will be only too glad to make you beasts 
gf burden. Your accounts will also be settled 



32 The Peoples Ark. 

very quickly with God, who will say to you : 
" Since you have done nothing for me, ask your 
reward from those to whom you have given your 
labor; go and rejoin them in the eternal dun- 
geons." You say, "Before everything, it is neces- 
sary to live." Yes, but to live well, you must 
know what life is, and religion alone teaches that. 

What, in reality is true religion, my friends ? It 
is the law which teaches us to regulate our work 
and labor so well as to attain to the blessed life, 
to never-ending repose. 

Our nature being composed of two parts, the 
soul and the body, welded together, we know not 
how, yet very distinct, there are, then, two lives in 
us, the spiritual and the animal. To live for the 
soul is to think, to judge; that is, to discern the 
true from the false, to love truth, and hate false- 
hood. To live for the body is to act, to feel; to 
procure for one's self agreeable sensations, to free 
one's self from suffering; this is what is sought by 
the animal part of our nature. 

There exist, then, two wills, two laws, two reli- 
gions, between which every one of us must choose. 

Let us then put the soul before the body, the 
love of truth and virtue before the love of carnal 
pleasures, and the fear of God before the fear of 
man. We are of the spiritual religion ; we are 
thinkers and Christians, as I have said in the 
Reveil dn Peitple, and we preserve our souls and 
bodies. 

But if, on the contrary, we prize animal plea- 
sures before everything else, degrading the soul to 
the condition of a slave of the body, whatever may 



First Entertainment. 3 3 

be the religious or philosophical mantle with which 
we try to clothe ourselves, we are, necessarily, 
adorers of the body, and through this life become 
even worse than animals; for, as I have said in the 
above-mentioned work, " Once that men wish to 
glut themselves with pleasures, they, necessarily, 
kill themselves." 

MAYOR. 

You then assume, sir, that there are only two 
religions in the world, Christianity and atheistic 
Materialism. Nevertheless you are not ignorant 
that a great number of religions exist in the world, 
and that even among those men who ignore or 
hate that of the Gospel, there are very few who 
profess atheism ? 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir; atheism shows such disorder in the 
mind and heart, that very few dare acknowledge 
themselves atheists. For that, they must have 
received the gift of effrontery in the same degree as 
Robert Owen, Proudhon, Heinzen, Struve, Marr, 
etc. There are, then, a great many apparent reli- 
gions, by means of which the crafty and inconsistent 
lovers of the body try to deceive themselves and 
others. But if in matters of religion they can 
blind themselves and deceive the blind, they cannot 
deceive Him who hears all they say, who sees all 
they do. 

In effect, my friends, religion is a law essen- 
tially moral and practical, which directs every 
man, and is revealed by acts much more than by 



34 TJw Pcop y es Ark. 

discourses. You may speak well of God, of moral- 
ity, of brotherly love, yet if you conduct yourself 
as if there were no God, or as if He had never 
given a law to men ; if you live like egotists 
who pamper themselves in pleasure, while men 
perish from hunger at your side, you are in reality 
materialists, adorers of the body, and your religion 
is only hypocrisy. 

Between these two states there is only a middle 
one for fools ; either man occupies himself seri- 
ously with his soul, and desires to know what 
he must do with regard to its destiny, whence 
he infallibly becomes Christian, if not already 
such; or man, absorbed in the worship of his 
desires, is as little troubled about his soul as 
if he had none, and he infallibly advances towards 
atheism ; if he does not reach that end, it is for 
want of logic or freedom. 

On the one side, God enlightening men with 
regard to their destiny, and saying to them: Be- 
lieve my word, observe my law, and you shall 
live ! On the other, Satan trying to bewilder his 
victims, by crying out to them : Despise the 
heavenly word, and look for no other good, no 
other pleasures than those which the earth pre- 
sents to you ! Such are the only two masters, 
who, since the beginning of the world, have 
divided between them the empire of souls. 

What have been, what are still, all the non- 
christian forms of worship, not excepting Mahom- 
etanism? Disguised atheisms, phantoms of reli- 
gion, conceived by the father of lies and the 
inspirer of bad passions, in order to degrade men, 



First Entertainment. 35 

and make them but a drove of cattle under the 
command of inhuman masters, as I have proved 
elsewhere.* 

What have been, what are still all the so-called 
Christian religions fabricated by schism and heresy? 
Only so many halting-places, from which the great 
master of evil gradually leads people on to atheism. 

It is well proved that all heresies, all schisms 
end, sooner or later, in deism, in indifference, and 
that the final motto of deism and indifference is 
always : God is only a dream. 

What is important for you to understand well, 
my friends, is that those phantoms of Christianity, 
which they try to place between the Catholic 
Church and atheism, are, in the minds of those 
who invent or protect them, only muzzles for 
you. 

"It is necessary for the people to have a leli- 
gion," say the adorers of self; "if they have not, 
being freed from the fear of God, they will 
plunder us and do worse. But let us beware of 
Catholicism which takes the unwarrantable liberty 
of preaching morality to the learned as well as to 
the ignorant. We want a religion that will com- 
mand the people and be commanded by us." 

Those gentlemen deceive themselves completely.^ 
Religions of the middle class have had their day.1 
Setting aside a few blinded followers of expiring 
sects to-day, every one adores either the God of 
the Catholic, or the god of money and pleasure. 
Now the adorers of money and pleasure would be 



* s 



See Reveil du Feujple, Lessons iv. and v. 



36 The Peoples Ark. 

true devotees, did they not say to the class which 
possesses and enjoys more, Let us divide, other- 
wise you shall be made away with. It is impossi- 
ble to decatholicize a nation, without, at the same 
time, socializing it. He who does not perceive 
this, must be very stupid. 

As to you, my friends, who do not wish to be 
muzzled by hypocrites, nor become devotees of 
robbery and murder, regard as the most furious 
enemies of our dignity, of your spiritual and tem- 
poral rights, of your liberties and repose, those 
miserable men who are laboring to deprive you of 
knowledge, respect, and love for the only religion 
which men have not fagoted. 

The enumeration and description of the enemies 
of religion would not be an easy task ; for though 
they all unite in crying out : " Down with the 
Catholic Church," they differ on every other point, 
and this very reasonably. 

When one does not wish to believe in Jesus 
Christ, he is right in believing only in himself; 
there are, then, as many religions as persons; as 
many gods as bodies. Like Samson's foxes, tied 
by the tail, to carry fire and devastation every- 
where, the enemies of Catholicism are as one 
against it, but they have a thousand dens, and as 
soon as they are no longer busy about the great 
Church, they oppose and fight one another like 
veritable demons. 

Nevertheless we may include them and their 
blinded followers in three classes ; first, declared 
atheists and pantheists; second, atheists and pan- 
theists disguised under the name of deists; third, 



First Entertainment. 



37 



the inventors and patrons of false systems of Chris- 
tianity, whether heretical or schismatical. 

In the following entertainments I will point out 
to you, my friends, the doctrines and intrigues of 
those different sectaries, and the manner in which 
you ought to resist their endeavors to rob you of 
your richest treasure in the present time, and the 
eternal future, the religion of Jesus Christ. 




SECOND ENTERTAINMENT, 



Symbol op the faith and morals of atheists and pan- 
theists — HOW WE CAN CURE THEM OR DISMISS THEM. 

CCORDING to atheists, God has never given 
religion to the world, for the simple reason 
that there is no God. Nature caused the 
first men to spring up like mushrooms. If 
the earth produces no more of those plants, it is, 
do you see, because it is too old, and because, 
men having discovered the art of reproducing 
themselves, she has judged proper to rest herself. 
This manner of expressing atheism being too 
foolish, too odious, the modern free-thinkers have 
given it a form less crude, and have become pan- 
theists. 

Instead of saying, God is nothing, the pantheistic 
say, God is everything. According to them, the 
divinity is not a being apart from all others, who 
has created the universe and who governs it, but 
it is the universe itself, it is the universal being, 
including in its existence everything that exists, 
making everything that is- made. It thinks, rea- 
sons, or raves in man; browses on the herbs of the 
field in the cow and the ox ; tears its prey in the 
lion and tiger; sings in the nightingale, grunts in 

38 



Second Entertainment. 39 

the pig, brays in the ass, clucks in the hen, devas- 
tates our gardens and granaries in the mole and 
the mouse, flows in liquid substance in the beds 
of the rivers, is hard and immovable in the rocks. 
Mud and manure, as well as the sun and stars, are 
members, parts of the divine nature. 

You will ask me, my friends, how so silly a god 
could have met with believers. But it is precisely 
because he is the most foolish of the gods invented 
by men, that the god of the pantheist finds so 
many lovers. Do you not see that believing in a 
god, in a great part material, whose intellect 
extends no farther than that of man, the most vil- 
lanous conscience must be at ease ? With a god 
who is everything, who does everything, who is 
at once both the robber and the robbed, the assas- 
sin and the victim, do you not see that the idea 
of divine justice is annihilated, that there is no 
longer either crime or virtue, and that the most 
abominable excesses are irreprehensible, because 
it is God who commits them? 

And here, I beg you, my friends, to observe 
the difference between atheistic and pantheistic 
morality. 

The atheist says: — God and his justice are but 
a word; man is, certainly, capable of everything, 
but if nothing hinders from evil, so neither does 
anything drive him to it, save his evil passions. 

The pantheist, on the contrary, says : — I am a part 
of the divinity; all that I think, desire and will, 
it is God who thinks, desires and wills it: — the 
pantheist is, I say, a fanatic, whose most wicked 
desires become heavenly commands; parricide 



40 The People s Ark. 

itself would be to him a duty, a satisfaction 
demanded by God. 

In a word, atheism permits all crimes, pantheism 
inspires them all, it commands, it deifies them. 
This is the most execrable invention of hell for 
man's perversion. 

As I do not like to preach to converts, I beg 
you, Mr. Teacher, to tell me whether atheism or 
pantheism has made any dupes among you, and 
if it would be well for me to try to disabuse 
them ? 

TEACHER. 

Our populations, sir, certainly leave something 
to be desired with regard to religious and secular 
instruction, but they still preserve enough of good 
sense to detest the follies of atheism and pan- 
theism. The laborers and mechanics of our bor- 
oughs and country towns see the works of God 
too closely for them to doubt His existence ; they 
feel too deeply the need of His aid, not to go 
from time to time to those places wherein we 
pray to Him, and learn to know and love Him. 

They have too much practical knowledge of 
the earth's skill, when not aided by the labor of 
their hands, to believe that it could ever have 
brought forth men, and have given them souls. 
In fine, they are not proud enough to think 
themselves gods. Let the sciolists and idle liber- 
tines of great cities, whose lives are but disorder, 
attribute the progress of the world to chance ; let 
their minds be so false, and their hearts so wicked 
as to deny the existence of God, or try to usurp 



Second. Entertainment. 41 

His place; it is all very well, — The fool hath said 
in his hearty Titer e is no God* 

However, as the evil of irreligion is on the 
increase, and hell has everywhere emissaries occu- 
pied in destroying the foundations of all morality, 
it may not be useless, sir, to tell us in a few- 
words, how we should conduct ourselves towards 
the preachers of atheism and pantheism. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

I expected, sir, the tribute you have rendered 
to the good dispositions of the people. 

As you have said very well, atheism and its 
brother, pantheism, are emanations from the filth 
of great cities. 

It has been remarked thousands of times, that 
those hideous maladies are not found in the 
masses, nor in great minds. We can defy the 
atheists to point out a nation or a great man that 
resembles them. This is because the people pre- 
serves its understanding, thanks to its religious 
instruction and moral habits; and what makes 
men great, is the understanding raised to its highest 
state by study and reflection. 

The simple and right-minded man, in contem- 
plating heaven and earth, there sees, there feels 
the hand of God. To tell him that such order, 
such beauty, is but the work of chance, is to shock 
him. 

It is the same, and with much more reason, 
with superior minds, who have closely studied the 

* Psalm xiii. 1. 
4* 



42 The People s Ark. 

wonders of nature. They behold the wisdom and 
power of the Creator in everything, in the smallest 
insect as well as in the general system of the 
world. 

Bourrienne, Napoleon's secretary, relates, that in 
his voyage from Toulon to Egypt, the immortal 
general was conversing on religion and philosophy 
with some officers and members of the Institute. 
It was a beautiful night in summer, and they were 
seated on deck. Many of the physicians, chemists 
and calculators made open profession of atheism, 
according to the fashion of the day. After having 
listened to them, Napoleon, pointing to the res- 
plendent vault of heaven, said : " Gentlemen, 
behold what ruins all your reasoning. Never 
could I be brought to believe that chance is the 
author and commander of the incomparable army 
of the heavens." 

Nature ! chance ! Who does not see that these 
are words employed by ignorance. 

If you find a pin or a nail in your way, you will 
certainly not attribute it to nature or chance. 
Why? Because you see in it the mark of the 
workman's labor and intelligence. Now, if that 
pin or nail, which a child can learn in a few hours 
to make, shows the skill of an intelligent being, 
how is it that that flower, that butterfly, that 
bird, which the greatest geniuses are incapable of 
making, does not demonstrate the existence of a 
being infinitely more powerful and intelligent than 
man? 

But is it necessary for man to come out of 
himself in order to see and feel God ? He stes, 



Second Entertai7irnent. 43 

he feels the life of his soul and body, but ignorant 
as he is of the generation of his body, and still 
more of the constitution of his soul, can he say 
that he is the author of his own life ? Evidently 
not. Can he give the honor of it to his father 
and mother, equally ignorant as himself of what 
is indispensable to the life of the body and soul ? 
Evidently not. 

In my studies, which already date far back, I 
had a great desire to examine the human 'body. 
In order not to lose myself in that little world, 
I contented myself with examining the skeleton, 
composed of only some two hundred and forty 
pieces. By a detailed calculation, of which I 
have made the public the judge, I found about 
one hundred combinations. Around this admira- 
ble frame-work of the bones are arranged four- 
teen different tissues. As these are much more 
complicated than the skeleton, we remain below 
the truth in affirming that each of them includes 
at least one hundred thousand combinations. 
Behold then fifteen hundred thousand things, to 
which the author of our body must necessarily 
have given attention, in order not to spoil his 
work. Can we then say, without folly, that that 
author is nature, is chance ? 

Must not our parents acknowledge that they 
are only the moulds in which God has cast the 
most wonderful of figures? Must they not say, 
like the mother of the Machabees : " Look up 
to heaven, my children ; there behold your Father. 
I know not how you were formed in my womb, 
for I neither gave you breath, nor soul, nor life, 



44 The Peoples Ark. 

neither did I frame the limbs of every one of 
you."* 

Yes, my friends, whether we contemplate the 
immense spectacle of the earth and the heavens, 
whether we consider in detail the least of the 
creatures which people the air, the earth, the 
water, it is impossible not to recognize the exist- 
ence of a being strong and powerful enough to 
maintain life and order in this great family, in 
which not one, not even man, knows exactly in 
what life and order consist. 

This labor is evidently beyond the strength of 
the universal god of the pantheists. In fact, this 
god being neither stronger nor more intelligent 
than we ourselves, who should be his highest 
form, how could he understand and do what no 
man has ever been able to do or understand ? 
And again, this god, mired in matter, incarnate 
in every animal from the oyster to the elephant, 
and guilty of all the follies, all the disorders of the 
human species, how could he establish and main- 
tain those laws so wise, so constant, which govern 
the universe ? 

Where, then, have the atheists and pantheists 
spread their absurd doctrines? If we except the 
crowd of dupes and certain cross-grained # minds, 
atheism and pantheism are to be met with only 
in haughty, shallow-minded persons, or those 
excessively vicious. 

Dissatisfied with everything, because nothing 
answers to their exorbitant pretensions, those piti- 

* II Mach. ch. vii. 22, 28. 



Second Entertainment 45 

ful men enter into a rage against God, the idea 
of whom terrifies them, and against society, which 
overwhelms them with its contempt. To abolish 
the thought of God, and to remodel society to the 
image of their bestial passions, such is their aim. 

As this class is now making great efforts to 
spread itself even in the country, I will here give 
the antidote in a few words. It is necessary to 
distinguish atheists into two classes, the dupes, and 
the teachers. The dupes are feeble-minded men, 
who stupidly repeat all the nonsense they have 
heard from their teachers, or have read in the 
books written by their worthless scribblers. We 
must pity their ignorance and try to enlighten 
them. 

Hence when you meet with one of those simple- 
tons who substitute for the omnipotent God, our 
mother, Nature, and our father, Chance, have the 
charity to say to him: "Are you such a simpletbn 
as to believe those idle tales ? Let us suppose that 
this evening, when you return home, you find your 
dog killed, your door broken open, your money 
taken, your cellar and granary empty, will you 
blame nature or chance for it? And would the 
wicked knaves, whom you would accuse of those 
acts, be able to justify themselves by saying that 
nature and chance might very well have taken from 
you what they had given you ? You would answer, 
that nature and chance are two idle words, incapable 
of doing any harm, and you would be right. 

"Well, now, will you believe that those words, 
incapable of killing your dog or rifling your house, 
are potent enough to give life to men and animals, 



46 The Peoples Ark. 

and to fill the earth and heavens with so many 
beautiful things ? 

"You say that the earth could well have en- 
gendered men! Go then to Paris and to London; 
ask the greatest geniuses and the most learned 
workmen, to arrange with Mother Earth to make 
for you, not a human body, but only one hair 
perfectly like that on our heads. They would 
send you away. What does this prove ? That 
you have on your head a hundred thousand proofs 
of the folly of the atheists, and of the existence of 
a God infinitely wise. 

" You find it difficult to believe in God because 
you do not see Him. But have you ever seen 
those who built our steeple two hundred years 
ago ? And because you have not seen them, will 
you say that the steeple has been built by nature 
or by chance? Have you ever seen the mind of 
our pastor, of our mayor, of our teacher? You 
believe in it, nevertheless, because you know that 
the first preaches well, the second administers well, 
and the third instructs w r ell. 

" Now contemplate the heavens on a beautiful 
night, the earth on beautiful days; do you not 
find there a sermon, a lesson, an administration 
which speak of the greatest of all minds? 

" Come, my friend, read your catechism, listen 
to your conscience, to your pastor, and leave to 
libertines and rogues that poodle philosophy; for 
should it come to spread itself among our people, 
our watch-dogs would not be vigilant enough, our 
bolts strong enough to protect our goods, our 
lives, or the honor of our wives and daughters." 



Second Entertainment. 47 

This, my friends, is the way in which we should 
deal with the dupes. 

As to the enraged teachers who would preach 
to you the religion which makes tigers, do not 
take the trouble of reasoning with them. Seize 
whatever comes next your hand, rods would be 
preferable, and say to them: "Our ancient reli- 
gion of the Cross has cost the life of its Founder, 
and of millions of martyrs. It is then just that 
you, gentlemen, should prove the truth of yours 
by accepting, for the love of the devil, a flagel- 
lation unto blood. Come, then, uncover your 
shoulders. ,, 

But if instead of teachers working by the way 
of persuasion, you should come in contact with 
atheistic proconsuls, establishing atheism by law 
and the guillotine, as in the year 93, it is clear 
that the rod would not do. 

1 shall tell you elsewhere how a nation frees 
itself from the government of tigers. 




THIRD ENTERTAINMENT. 



Creed op the deists — What we would become with their 
gospel of nature, and animal papacy — way of van- 
quishing them. 

*HE deists are a very common species of self- 
worshippers, who think it well that God 
should create, preserve, and nourish our 
bodies, but are not willing that He give to 
our souls the bread of His word. 

God is too great, they say, to become our 
pedagogue. He has given us reason and con- 
science ; He has spread before us the great book 
of nature; let us read it attentively, and we shall 
know enough. 

You have too much good sense, my friends, 
not to perceive the fallacy of such reasoning. We 
ought to say to the deists: — What! you acknow- 
ledge that God presides over the lowest functions 
of the body, that He causes the blood to circulate 
in our veins, the air in our lungs; you do not 
judge it unworthy of His majesty that He should 
cause our aliments to grow, that He should ripen 
them by His sun, that He should attend to them 
in our stomachs to elaborate their juices, and 
distribute them through all our members; yet 
you believe Him dishonored if He endeavors to 

4 8 



Third Entertainment. 49 

enlighten and elevate our minds and hearts by His 
teachings! 

You make Him the purveyor, the nourisher of 
our animal nature, yet are unwilling that He be 
what He delights in being, the teacher of our souls, 
the God of knowledge. You are either fools or 
impostors. What, in reality, are all those cunning 
deists ? Hypocrites, who practise atheism without 
being candid enough to profess it They are men 
who say to themselves : — It would be necessary for 
us to submit to a God who speaks and gives laws 
to man, and we wish to have no other master than 
ourselves. But that we may not be pointed out as 
atheists, let us acknowledge a God, but a working 
God, who does everything and says nothing, who 
serves man, and exacts nothing from him. 

Behold, my friends, what makes deists. Their 
pretended religion of reason, of conscience, of 
nature, is but the worship of all vices. I will 
prove it. 

What do you find in the mind and conscience 
of your children before you have taught them 
anything? Nothing but perfect ignorance. What 
do you find in their nature, in as far as you have 
not cultivated it? Vicious inclinations which grow 
more quickly than weeds in untilled land. Allow 
them to live according to their reason, their con- 
science, their nature, and you shall have little 
monsters, who will have no other religion than that 
of pride, envy, avarice, gluttony, luxury, anger, and 
idleness." 

Who does not know that the child is born even 
more feeble in mind than in body, and that he 



50 The Peoples Ark. 

learns to eat and to walk, before knowing how to 
think or judge wisely on things? His reason is a 
vessel, well fitted indeed to receive knowledge, but 
empty so long as nothing is put therein. It is a 
spiritual organ destined to see the things of the 
soul, as the eyes are a material organ proper to 
enlighten the body. But in order to see clearly, is 
it sufficient for us to have eyes? No; we must 
also have light. Well; it is the same with our 
reason ; it is enlightened only when we present to 
it the light of instruction. Reason without instruc- 
tion is an eye without light, and consequently 
blind. To say, then, like the deists: God having 
given reason to men, what necessity is there to 
teach them His law ? is to say, God having given 
eyes to men, why need He have created light? 

But, answer the deists, God instructs men by 
the spectacle of nature. The universe is the 
temple in which He manifests to us His will, and 
desires that we adore Him in spirit and in truth. 
All creatures render homage to the wisdom of 
His laws. Who can contemplate the admirable 
harmony which reigns in His works without 
becoming better, without being penetrated with 
the love of order, and a profound respect for 
the supreme Legislator? 

What are all these, my friends, but high-sound- 
ing words, which cover abominable errors ? 

Without doubt, the sight of the wonders of 
nature proves the existence of God, in the same 
manner as the sight of a magnificent palace demon- 
strates the existence of an architect; but even as 
the palace leaves us in complete ignorance of the 



Third Entertainment. 51 

architect's personal character and private thoughts, 
so does the universe fail to tell us why God has 
made it, and what He proposed to Himself in 
placing us in it. 

That we may learn our destiny and our duties, 
the deists refer us to the teachings of animals; 
this is to say to us : If you wish to know what 
you have to do, look at the stars, consult the 
animals and imitate them; they are the only 
models and masters of morality which God has 
given to our species. 

My friends, is not this a beautiful school for 
your children ? Do you not see what grand pro- 
gress they would make in wisdom under the 
direction of wolves, foxes, dogs, and swine? They 
would first see that the young of animals remain 
subject to their parents only so long as they are 
necessary to their life, and that once they are 
grown, they know them no longer, but beat and 
kill them without scruple. Hence they would 
conclude w T ith the famous deist Rousseau, that 
"children remain bound to their father only so 
Jong as they need him for their preservation. As 
soon as this necessity ceases, the natural tie is 
dissolved."* 

Your children would see that in the animal 
republic, every one thinks only of himself, that the 
strong pitilessly devour the weak, and the weak 
employ a thousand artifices to destroy the strong. 
They would see that all satiate their instincts 
without shame or remorse, however disgusting or 

* The Social Contract, Book L, ch. 2 r 



52 The Peoples Ark. 

cruel they may be. Hence they will conclude with 
Voltaire, the great pope of modern deists, that 
pleasure is the universal end ; and that to combat out 
desires and our propensity to enjoyments, is to go 
contrary to the laws of nature. What is, then, that 
book of Nature, so much vaunted by deists, if the 
Gospel be not there to explain it ? It is a book 
in which the most execrable villains find their 
justification. What, in reality, do all those mon- 
sters who dishonor the human race ? They only 
imitate animals, and yield to the inclinations of 
their nature. 

And observe well, my friends, that the man 
who would wish for no other law than that of his 
natural instincts, would become a hundred times 
worse than the beasts. Why? Because the de- 
sires of animals are very limited, and they never 
tend to the destruction of their species, while those 
of men are infinite, and if the moral check did not 
restrain them, they would prey upon one another 
even to the last. Let us give a few examples. 

The most lascivious animal has never appro- 
priated to himself one hundred, two hundred, or 
a thousand females. But man has done it, and 
does it still in every country where the Gospel 
does not say to him : Thou shalt have but one 
wife. The lion, the tiger, the bear, and the wolf 
content themselves with hunting in their grounds, 
and the prey for the day once found, they stop. 
They have never been seen to undertake to con- 
quer one or many kingdoms, nor to say to any 
one of their species : Serve me, or I will kill you. 
But men do it, whenever the true religion does 



Third Entertainment. 53 

not subdue their insatiable passion of possessing, 
enjoying, commanding, and destroying everything 
that resists them. 

What was that race of monsters, thirsting for 
blood and pillage, who, more than eighty years 
ago, not content with the carnage wrought by a 
war against all Europe, cut off by millions the 
heads of their countrymen whom they governed. 
They all were simply atheists, deists, who had 
substituted the religion of reason and nature for 
the religion of the Gospel. What would have 
become of France under the government of those 
children of nature, if a general, dear to the army 
and the people, had not reopened the temples of 
the true God, and said to the devotees of reason: 
Enough, rabble, enough ! Go no farther, or ! 

You see now, my friends, what you must reply 
to those miserable men, who, in order to turn 
you aside from the divine teachings of religion, 
would tell you that divine revelation is an idle 
tale invented by the priests, and that the sun of 
reason suffices to enlighten all those philosophical 
enough to advance only by its light. However, 
for the sake of those who might not yet have an 
answer very ready to their mind, I beg Mr. 
Teacher to be kind enough to give it to us. 

TEACHER. 

I fear, sir, that you presume too much on my 
strength. I have frequently heard such speeches, 
and when I answered, I did not feel satisfied with 
my arguments. But now, thanks to what you 
have said of the manner in which our minds are 
5* 



54 The Peoples Ark. 

enlightened, it seems to me that I could serve 
those self-worshippers. I would say to them : I 
believe that reason may be sufficient for men with- 
out reflection, who wish to enjoy themselves and 
make merry until that day, when their body des- 
cending into the grave, their soul shall go to 
receive the reward of a life wholly animal. To 
him who wishes to live like a beast, the teachings 
of God are in no wise necessary, and become 
even very troublesome. But it is evident that 
reason is not enough for those of reflecting minds, 
who desire to know whence they came when 
coming out of their mother's womb they were 
placed in the cradle, and what will become of 
their soul when their body shall be enclosed 
between four planks. 

Your beautiful sun of reason, alas ! we behold 
arising every day in our children, and we know 
what it is worth, and what it can do. You, who 
owe to it so much enlightenment, tell us, was it 
reason which cared for you while you were in 
swaddling-clothes, and prevented you from being 
stifled in filth? Was it reason that taught you 
how to stand on your feet, how to distinguish 
your right hand from your left, how to eat, to 
to walk, to speak? It is probable that you, like 
every one else, learned all this from your nurse ? 
Is it reason alone that has taught you reading, 
writing, ciphering, Latin, and all that college learn- 
ing which may have left many empty places in 
your head, but has so puffed up your heart as to 
cause you to despise the religion of your parents ? 

Your knowledge is the fruit of the revelations 



Third Entei'tainnient. 55 

of your masters, and of the books they put into 
your hands, and you know only in proportion to 
what you have learned. 

Our reason, then, instead of being a sun, enlight- 
ening every man coming into the world, is a lamp, 
beautiful, indeed, but giving light only when 
enkindled and supplied with oil. Had not God 
illuminated the first two reasons, and given them 
the oil of truth, we should never have heard the 
light of human reason spoken of. 

Since we remain ignorant of the concerns of our 
body and the world, except in as far as those who 
know them reveal them to us, we must, with much 
greater reason, be ignorant of the affairs of our 
soul, and of the invisible world, so long as the 
masters of our souls and of heaven shall not have 
imparted them to us. Come, then, no more to 
tell us that reason dispenses us from believing in 
revelation, or you will give us room to believe that 
philosophy, instead of improving your head, has 
only softened your brain. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Thanks, sir; the following conversations, in 
which we shall examine the beautiful works of the 
human mind in religious matters, will confirm 
what you have said so well of the feebleness of 
our reason when not directed by God. 




FOURTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Deistical self-worshippers judged by the pontiffs and 
magistrates of their choice — why we are born more 
ignorant than animals — duty of our first father, 
Teacher, and Master. 

N the last entertainment we saw, my friends, 
that the deists acknowledge no gospel save 
that of nature. In this they agree with 
atheists and pantheists. When we ask them 
who are the interpreters of the great book of 
Nature, they point to all creatures, animate and 
inanimate, from the sun to the ground-mole. 

Rousseau, the most spiritual and eloquent of 
them, did not hesitate to write : " The man who 
thinks" (that is who wishes to know more than 
beasts) "is a depraved animal." 

Let us take those knaves at their word, and let 
them be condemned by th^ir equals, or rather, by 
their superiors, since by accepting animals as their 
masters and models, they acknowledge the pre- 
eminence of the animal species. 

Has God given laws to creatures, and has He 
revealed them? 

Yes, answer all creatures; see you not that we 
are faithful to those laws, and that the pretended 

56 



Fourth Entertainment. 57 

irregularities of nature exist only in the imagina- 
tions of the ignorant ? 

This is the answer given by entire nature and 
by all animals. In fact, if the latter have not re- 
ceived reason, they have been gifted with instinct, 
that is to say, with a singular aptitude to fill the 
functions which the Creator has imposed on them 
in this world. They make admirable use of their 
modicum of wisdom, and we find none of them in 
ignorance of what they have to do. 

The birds destined to people the air and gladden 
us by their beauty and the sweetness and variety 
of their songs, acquit themselves admirably of 
their task. They know their food, which consists, 
in part, of injurious insects. If they eat a few 
grains, they are sure to pay their full reckoning.* 

The fishes know their place in the vast extent 
of the sea, and those kinds which se-*ve as our 
food, never miss the rendezvous where the fisher- 
man's net awaits them. 

It is the same with terrestrial animals. It costs 
a great deal to tame a wild beast and draw it out 
of its natural state, and even then we do not always 
succeed very well. As to domestic animals, des- 

* In the last century, which was that of philosophers 
without philosophy, the savants of Berlin showed that 
sparrows were destructive birds, which famished Prussia by 
their voracity. The government ordained that every peasant 
should bring the heads of twelve sparrows every year. The 
poor birds were destroyed. But scarcely two years had 
elapsed, when the harvest being ravaged by clouds of insects, 
the government was obliged to acknowledge its mistake, and 
offer a handsome prize to whoever would introduce a couple 
of sparrows into the country. 



58 The Peoples Ark. 

tined to live in our midst, the strongest obey the 
voice of a child. See with what intelligence they 
separate to their several employments, and what 
good they draw from what we should otherwise 
lose. Allow me to quote a few lines from a book 
which I would like to see in every family. 

" The heavy cow pastures down in valleys ; the 
light sheep on the sides of hills; the climbing goat 
browses on the shrubs of the rocks ; the pig rakes 
up the roots of marshy ground; the duck eats 
fluviatic plants; the hen, with attentive eye, picks 
up the grains dropped in our fields; the pigeon 
with rapid wing, those of the distant forests; and 
the thrifty bee feeds on the pollen of flowers. 
There is not a spot of the earth on which they 
cannot make a harvest of plants. All return in the 
evening to our habitations with lowings, bleatings, 
or cries of joy, bringing us the sweet tribute of 
plants, changed by an inconceivable metamorphosis 
into honey, milk, butter, eggs, and cream."* Con- 
fide the nursing of an infant to that goat, usually 
so heedless, so inconstant, you will see it, at certain 
hours, run from a distance of more than a league, 
and place itself with all the dexterity of a mother 
over the cradle of its dear nursling, inviting it, by 
bleatings and caresses, to take its nourishment. 

Yes, my friends, animals also have their reli- 
gion, that is to say, a law that attaches them to 
the place and functions destined for them by the 
Creator. This law is infused into them, that is, 

* Lessons of Nature. By M. Cousin Despreaux, augmented 
by M. Desdouits. Consider, cxix. 



Fourth Entertainment. 59 

they are not obliged to learn it from man or one 
another; they have it from their very birth, and 
are so subjected to it that they cannot violate it. 
It is not so with us who require so long an 
apprenticeship of life, and who, even in the ma- 
turity of age, are always in need of our neighbor's 

help and experience But I think Mr. 

Mayor has something to remark, and I beg him 
to speak. 

MAYOR. 

Sir, the question which you are touching has 
frequently attracted my attention. In discussing 
this point with friends, we have often asked our- 
selves : How is it that animals seem so learned 
and sagacious in regard to their own affairs, while 
we their masters are so ignorant, so untractable, 
while study sometimes makes us such wicked 
animals ? 

After a few days nursing the young animals 
know as much as their parents, and find them- 
selves, as the saying is, doctors in -utroque. 

The chickling hatched only eight days, no 
sooner hears or sees the eagle or hawk, than it 
takes refuge under its mother's wings, or cowers 
under a bush. 

If our dogs or cats be sick, (a thing which often 
happens more through our fault than theirs,) and 
we open the door for them, they will go direct 
to the herb that cures them. If the weasel, which 
often attacks the viper, feels that it has been 
stung, it makes one bound to rub its wound on 
a plant known to our shepherds, and falls again 
on its enemy, before it can regain its hole. 



6o The People s Ark. 

As to our little ones, who at fifteen pretend to 
know so much that they think the world ought 
to be made over again, we see what it costs to 
teach them the little that we know. But if, wish- 
ing to raise them above our condition, we push 
them in their studies, we find it a very tedious and 
expensive process, and what is its result ? For one 
good subject whom we give to the Church or State, 
we raise four miscreants, who shall have ruined 
their family only to become the destroyers of 
society. The catechism, it is true, teaches us that 
our first parents having sinned in the terrestrial 
paradise, in punishment thereof, fell into those 
depths of ignorance and corruption which they 
have transmitted to us. In fact, seeing with what 
intractable minds and hearts we enter into this 
world, and how difficult it is to improve us, the 
mystery of original sin is very credible. But is 
that mystery a sufficient explanation of the great 
difference there is between the skill of animals 
and the intractable ignorance of our race ? Since, 
notwithstanding the sin of Adam, God has willed 
to save our race, does it not seem that He should 
have given us the same advantages as animals ? 
should have united their instinct to our reason 
and abridged the term of our infancy? 

This doubt I submit to you, begging you to 
excuse my somewhat lengthy speech. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

We are never lengthy, sir, when we say nothing 
but what has a bearing on the subject, and when 
the question is, like yours, full of interest. 



Fourth Entertainment. 6 1 

You are right in thinking that original sin does 
not suffice to explain the difference existing be- 
tween men and animals in regard to education. 
Sin has degraded our nature and enfeebled our 
faculties, but it has destroyed neither one nor the 
other. Man in the state of innocence would have 
been taught as he had been conceived; his educa- 
tion, thanks to the vigor and uprightness of his 
mind, would have been most easy and successful. 
Let us come to the true reason of the difference 
of which we speak. 

This reason is the wholly different destiny of 
men and animals. Men, despite their misery and 
weakness, are the masters, the kings of the earth, 
while animals are but slaves, each limited to a 
particular task in the general service of the great 
kingdom. Now, you know that the education of 
a king is different from that of a slave. 

If beasts owe so little to their parents, it is 
because they are not destined to live with or for 
them. Scarcely are they nursed ere they leave 
them, never to meet them again, and go their way. 
Living generally alone, they at certain times meet 
in pairs for so long as is necessary for the propa- 
gation of their species. This is the case with wild 
beasts in particular. 

Animals created to live with us are more socia- 
ble, but the bond of their society is ourselves. 
You know what would become of our herds and 
flocks if the shepherd were not there to prevent 
them from dispersing and fighting with one 
another, by the authority of his presence, his voice, 
and his crook. 



62 The Peoples Ark. 

Beasts know their duties from the very first, 
and acquit themselves of them admirably. This 
is necessary for the well-being of our kingdom. 
But, again, that is the extent of their knowledge, 
which they are incapable of increasing or dimin- 
ishing. For thousands of years they have been 
observed, and always found to have the same 
manners, the same habits, without one shadow of 
progress. Let us bless God for it, for were they 
to begin to reason, to deliberate, to form constitu- 
tions, to organize parliaments, name commissions, 
occupy themselves with reforms, we should be 
deserving of pity. Our own revolutions are, cer- 
tainly, not amusing, but the most terrible of those 
we now experience are but child's play, compared 
with the calamities which would be produced by the 
irruption of the revolutionary spirit into the ani- 
mal species, from the eagle to the gnat, from the 
elephant, the lion, the bull, even to the cheese-mite. 

In fine, the beasts, those in particular who do 
not live under our laws, are seldom subject to dis- 
eases, and heal themselves without consultation. 
This, again, is necessary for the exactness of the 
service. It is natural, since three-fourths of our 
maladies are the consequence of our excesses or 
those of our parents, and beasts are never guilty 
of excesses. It is, also, an effect of the goodness 
of the Creator, who, having limited the existence 
of beasts to this life, does not wish that those crea- 
tures incapable of violating His laws, should bear 
the penalty of that violation, which is suffering. 

We, also, should consider this, my friends, we 
who are made to the image of God, and invested 



Fourth Entertainment. 63 

by Him with empire over animals ; it is bad enough 
that we should be in the sad necessity of devoting 
to death those excellent servants, without our 
making of their useful and devoted lives a con- 
tinual suffering. Were we to exercise towards 
them that justice and mildness prescribed by God 
to the Jews in the old law, and shown by the Arabs 
and Bedouins to their horses at the present day, 
we would fulfil a duty of humanity, and would be 
rewarded by a greater degree of sagacity, devoted- 
ness and strength in our beasts of burden, which, 
by our ill-treatment, become more feeble, fierce, 
and irritable, But, alas! how can we be surprised 
at our cruelty and ingratitude towards animals, 
when we look at our conduct towards the Master 
who placed them at our service, and to whom we 
owe everything? 

Let us return, however, to our own species. 

If the education of man be so tedious, so labori- 
ous ; if, in reality, it be of as long duration as our 
life, it is because we are destined to immortality; 
it is because this present life is only a preparation 
for that which is eternal. We receive everything 
from God through the interposition of man, in 
this world in which we are only exiles, as well as 
in the great future world in which we are to dwell 
eternally, therefore, we ought to live in intimate 
union with our Heavenly Father and with men 
our brethren. 

What is the bond of society, my friends ? Is it 
not the need we have of one another? Is it not 
the love which results from the good we render 
one another? You have, doubtless, observed that 



64 The Peoples Ark. 

a favor not only binds him who receives it to him 
who confers it, but it also attaches the benefactor 
to him who is benefited. 

Is it not true that you would love your children 
less had they cost you less, and that those you 
love most dearly are, ordinarily, those to whom you 
have been obliged to give most care, for the same 
reason that you feel greater interest in that field 
on which you have labored most? 

Who is it, in the family, that is the most tenderly 
loving, and the most tenderly beloved ? It is the 
mother, the great benefactress, the household mar- 
tyr, who bears her children, not for nine months 
only, but for twelve or fifteen years ; who carries 
them still in her heart, and accompanies them with 
her prayers when they are two thousand leagues 
distant from her, employed in instructing the 
savages or defending the flag of their country. 

Let us observe that it is not to our own family 
alone, but to the whole human family that God has 
desired to bind us by the bonds of mutual necessity, 
gratitude and love, so that all men may be united. 
Let us recall a few of the benefits we owe to 
unknown hands and past generations. Were they 
not our fathers, our benefactors, those first foreign- 
ers who came to cultivate Europe, and introduce 
into it all the arts known at that remote period ? 
Are not the same titles due to those who, con- 
tinuing the work, brought the arts to perfection, 
planted harvests in the place of woods and marshes, 
and changed our first huts into houses, our vil- 
lages into cities ? Should we not regard as bro- 
thers those Persians, who, by cultivating t\ie cherry 



Fourth Entertainment. 65 

and peach-trees, gave to the Roman, Lucullus, the 
idea of introducing them into Europe two thou- 
sand years ago. 

What should be our gratitude towards those 
who first discovered the potato in the mountains 
of South America, and brought it to Europe at 
the end of the sixteenth century ? Is not the 
same acknowledgment due to the apothecary, 
Parmentier, who suffered so much in combating 
the absurd prejudices of two centuries against this 
precious article of food, that he ran a risk of being 
killed for having invented a poison ?* 

Do not the savage American Indians deserve 
well of us, they who, knowing the wonderful 
properties of quinquina, revealed them to the mis- 
sionaries, which circumstance gave it the name of 
"the powder of the Fathers; and it is still known 
as 'Jesuits' bark "? 

Do we not owe an acknowledgment to the 
religious, and also to the goat that found the 
coffee plant ?f 

And you, my friends, who smoke the pipe or 
the cigar, do you not feel grateful to the American 
savages who have taught you the use of the 



* In an electoral assembly, in which there was question of 
appointing Parmentier to a public office, one of the speakers 
cried out: u Preserve us from him ! He would make us eat 
potatoes ; it is he who has invented them." 

f It is commonly believed that the merit of the discovery 
of the properties of coffee is due to the prior of an Arabian 
monastery, who; noticing an extreme vivacity in the goats who 
fed on the fruit of the plant, counselled his religious to use 
this berry to conquer the inclination to sleep. 
6* 



66 The Peoples Ark. 

agreeable tobacco plant, and have, at the same 
time, cautioned you against the abuse of it? 

Such, my friends, are some among the thousands 
of facts which prove what the religion of Jesus 
Christ tells us : that God wishes all men to con- 
sider themselves as members of one and the same 
family, and that they should contribute to the 
good of one another. If instead of forgetting 
ourselves and quarreling with one another, we 
would take as our rule that Christian charity which 
embraces all men, savages as well as the civilized, 
it is evident that we should draw the greatest fruit 
in every point of view. 

Such is not the case with animals. Those of 
the present day owe nothing to those of past times. 
A bear-cub might be reared by all the bears in 
the universe, and he would be none the wiser. 
And what can even we ourselves teach to the 
most industrious animals ? A few tricks — nothing 
more. The reason of this is that animals shall 
have no future beyond death, and that they have 
all the knowledge necessary to their present con- 
dition. Man, on the contrary, can always learn 
and increase in enlightenment, wisdom and well- 
being, and why? Because he is always more or 
less a child in this world, in which he must receive 
his education, and he shall not attain his perfect 
age, until he enter the mansion of his divine 
Father, which is heaven. 

What follows, my friends, from the palpable 
and striking fact that men must be moulded and 
educated by one another? 

That the two first human beings must have 



Fourth Entertainment. 67 

been taught by God Himself, and must have 
learned of Him that which is beyond all human 
science — the history of their origin and the know- 
ledge of their destiny. That which you must do 
for the good education of your children through 
yourself, the pastor, and the teacher, was not God 
bound to do for His first two children, of whom 
He was at the same time, the Father, Pastor, and 
Teacher, and to whom He confided the education 
of the great human family? 

What would you think of the father of a family, 
who, having a great fortune, should bestow all 
necessary care on the bodies of his children, but 
should leave their minds in complete ignorance of 
everything, so that they could neither think, nor 
speak, and would remain perfect idiots all their 
lives? You could account for such cruelty only 
by saying he was a fool. Well, can you believe 
that God, the best of fathers, could have created 
the first two human beings without teaching them 
what they could learn from Him alone, that is, by 
whom, how, and why, they had been placed in the 
world, what functions they were to fill therein, 
what they had to do and to avoid in order to 
answer the designs of the Creator, to merit his 
friendship, and avoid His displeasure? Failing to 
receive those precious lights which God alone 
could give, our first parents would have remained 
in veritable idiocy, and would have been much 
more deserving of pity than are animals. In fine, 
to admit the divine creation of man, yet reject 
revelation, as do the deists, is to outrage God and 
common sense. 



FIFTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



"Were our first parents foundlings? some of the patri- 
archs of deism — Education of Adam and Eve — Their 
destiny and ours. 

OD having been sufficient for Himself until 
the beginning of the creation, nothing obliged 
Him to create the human family, among 
whom some love and serve Him very sloth- 
fully, others forget Him, and some are so wicked 
as to curse and outrage Him. But God having 
once created man, you understand, my friends, 
that He would not dispense Himself from the 
obligation of providing for His education, as He 
does for that of the smallest insect. 

Reason being only the faculty of learning, of 
being taught, the gift of the faculty, of learning, 
separated from instruction, would be ridiculous. 

With an instinct inferior to that of animals, and 
a mind void of all knowledge of their destiny, the 
first two individuals of our species would have 
been in the great family of beings only miserable 
foundlings, cruelly abandoned by their Heavenly 
Father. Yes, the Being infinitely good would 
have shown Himself more pitiless than the unna- 
tural mother, who places the fruit of her womb in 
68 



Fifth Entertainment. 69 

the turning-box of the foundling hospital. She, 
at least, knows that her child passes into the 
arms of the daughters of St. Vincent de Paul. 
But when God created Adam and Eve, where was 
the Sister of Charity appointed to take charge of 
them, and teach them from whom and why they 
had received existence? 

He that will not confess that reason calls for 
revelation, must have a great share of dishonesty 
or foolishness. Deism, which admits a God- 
Creator but rejects a God-Revealer, has been 
preached only by poets and sophists destitute of 
morality, who would wish to have a God like 
their egotism, a God who would give Himself the 
pleasure of paternity without assuming its respon- 
sibilities. Such were, among others, Voltaire and 
Rousseau. The first, after having devoted a long 
life to impiety and luxury, the twin-daughters of 
Satan, died without having been either a husband 
or a father. The second, after many vagaries and 
obscenities, of which he has himself been the 
historian, attached himself to a woman whom he 
forced to carry his children to a foundling-hos- 
pital. 

Those two apostles, naturally, met with great 
success among the higher classes, who were 
charmed with the idea of having to do with a 
Supreme Being, a ci-devant God, whose entire 
law would be comprised in the words : Live 
according to your appetites, and you shall work 
out your salvation. 

In fine, you see very plainly, my friends, that 
deism and the so-called religions founded upon it, 



70 The Peoples Ark. . 

are not, nor ever shall be anything but religious 
phantasms, for the use of fools and hypocrites. 

Nothing, then, is as reasonable as what the 
Bible tells us of the care with which God formed, 
instructed, and united Adam and Eve in the de- 
lightful abode of Eden. It says that He filled them 
with the knowledge of understanding. He created 
in them the science of the spirit; He filled their 
hearts with wisdom &nd showed them both good 

and evil He gave to them His precepts and 

made them the depositaries of the law of life. He 
made with them an eternal covenant. He made 
known to them his justice and his judgment. They 
contemplated with their eyes the majesty of his 
glory, and he said to them, Beware of all iniquity! 
And he commanded every one of them to take 
care of his neighbor,"* that is, of his children. 

Is not this Biblical account a hundred times 
more sensible than the fabulous one in which the 
deists represent to us the first two human beings 
as orang-outangs, coming from no one knows 
where, subsisting on roots and by the chase; who, 
meeting each other accidentally in the forest, 
managed to create speech by means of signs and 
grunts, and successively invented all the arts ? 

If there is mystery in the Christian Genesis, 
how much stupidity there is in the Genesis of 
deism ! 

But what was the truth which God particularly 
inculcated to our first parents, and which He 
recommended them to engrave on the minds of 



* Ecclesiast., ch. xvii. 



Fifth Entertainment. 71 

their children? It was, without doubt, the know- 
ledge of their destiny. 

"In creating you to my image and likeness, " 
said He to them, " I have wished to give myself 
children worth}' of being on^ day associated to 
my eternal kingdom. 

" Raise, then, your minds and hearts above this 
earth, through which you are only passing; look 
up at the immense vault of the heavens; it is but 
the vestibule of the dwelling I have prepared for 
you. There you shall enjoy without measure and 
eternally all the pleasures your heart desires. 
You can enter there only by the observance of 
my commandments ; woe to you if you violate 
them ! Despair, confusion, and sorrow shall be 
your eternal portion." 

Such, my friends, is the future which Chris- 
tianity promises : — is it deficient in nobleness and 
grandeur ? Is it not worth more than the terres- 
trial paradise which the greedy revolutionists or 
communists promise, the first by delivering the 
earth to pillage, the second by turning it into a 
stable for swine ? 

MAYOR. 

As for me, sir, I find but one defect in that 
future: it is too grand, too exalted for the poor 
human species which takes such delight in feeding 
itself with the filth of the world. When we see 
how three-fourths of men employ their lives, how 
can we believe what the Gospel tells us of our 
destiny ? 

We must, at least, confess that God and men 
do not understand each other, and that their dis- 



72 The Peoples Ark. 

agreement, already of long duration, is not near 
its end. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, certainly, there seems to be a far from per- 
fect understanding between God and the greater 
number of men, but whose is the fault? Can it 
be God's, in that He has not been sufficiently 
explicit? or, rather, is it not men's, who close their 
eyes and ears against evidence itself? Now, I 
maintain, that in this difficulty all the fault is on 
our side. 

That the desires of man are unbounded, while 
the goods and pleasures he can procure for him- 
self here below are extremely limited, is not only 
an evangelical truth, it is a proverb, as ancient as 
the w r orld, as universal as the human conscience, 
as clear as the sun. Where is the nation that has 
not expressed, in a hundred ways, in its own 
tongue, the saying of La Fontaine, that "four 
Mathusalems could not put an end to the desires 
of one."* 

All self-delusion on this point is inexcusable. 
Thus, if you had a more intimate knowledge of 
the miseries of those whom you consider rich and 
happy, you would find yourself the least to be 
pitied among men. You imagine that nothing is 
wanting to the happiness of one who enjoys a cer- 
tain net revenue of ten thousand dollars a year ; — 
what folly! Among the millions who enjoy such 
an income, or who have increased it ten or a 



* Quatre Mathusalem bout a bout ne pourraient 
Mettre a fin ce qu'un seul desire. 



Fifth Entertainment. 73 

hundred-fold, show me a single one, who, unless 
he is a true Christian, bears on his brow the 
impress of contentment 

Besides that the appetite comes in eating, that 
riches engender avarice, which is perpetual poverty, 
who does not know that the wealthy worldling 
is ruled by two insatiable tyrants — pleasure and 
ambition? The life oi the man of pleasure, like 
that of the drunkard, is always divided between 
the torments of thirst and the sleep of intoxication. 
And his life, which is not a life, ends in stupidity 
and suffering. 

What ambitious man has ever said, " It is 
enough"? The official wishes to become a min- 
ister ; a minister, a governor ; a governor, the 
ruler of the state ; the ruler of one state covets 
two, then ten, then twenty. Napoleon, who 
within the space of ten years rose from the rank 
of lieutenant of artillery to the government .of 
Europe, said : " I shall not have done much while 
England remains standing, and while my dynasty 
is not the oldest reigning." 

Alexander the Great being master of half the 
world, and seeing the rest about to yield to him, 
was inconsolable because the universe was so 
small. 

You will say with me, that, with all their genius, 
those great heroes were great fools. Yes, but not 
greater than those farmers, who, having ten acres 
of good ground, think they would be happier if 
they had twenty. When there is question of 
satisfying the heart of man, I see only one dif- 
ference between a small domain, a quarter of a 
7 



74 The Peoples Ark. 

league in circumference, and the empire of the 
world, which is nine thousand leagues in every 
direction ; that is, that the proprietor of the world 
would be a hundred times more tormented than 
the owner of ten or fifteen acres, according to 
the proverb, Nulle terre sans guerre. No land 
without war. 

Yes, my friends, on the capital j)oint of our 
destiny, God has sufficiently explained Himself by 
the voice of our heart. What does that heart 
ask ? It asks unceasingly for the infinite, it vehe- 
mently tends to that religion which promises 
unlimited happiness. To think with the socialistic 
atheists that we can appease its clamors by giving 
it a little ground and a few dollars, is the fanaticism 
of folly. Even if the experience of six thousand 
years had not demonstrated that no man is content 
with his condition here below; even if care, 
sorrow, ennui, satiety and disgust were not the 
inseparable attendants of what we call honors, 
riches, and pleasures, would not sickness and 
death be sufficient to dissipate all our dreams of 
terrestrial felicity? 

Therefore, when the promoters of socialism come 
to promise you universal happiness in return for 
the bold stroke of social revolution, tell them reso- 
lutely: — You, gentlemen, prophets of the future, 
have promised to each of us the right to work and 
to receive aid. This is, indeed, something, but yet 
not enough ; decree that every one shall have a 
right to health and life, but above all, provide for 
the execution of your decree. So long as you 
shall not have procured an infallible recipe against 



Fifth Entertainment. 75 

the surprises of sickness and death, we hold your 
terrestrial paradise to be one of those sorry jests 
which call for a less pleasant answer. 

Believe it well, my friends, or rather see it; faith 
teaches us nothing of our destiny but what is in 
perfect accordance with the voice of conscience, 
with the philosophy of experience and good sense. 
If there are pure and lasting pleasures in this 
valley of tears, are they not enjoyed by those truly 
religious souls who renounce the pursuits of ter- 
restrial happiness ? In truth, happiness is like 

John de Nivelle's dose, 
Which flies when it is called. 

Give me sincere Christians, who believe and 
practise all that is prescribed in the Catholic cate- 
chism, who avoid what it forbids ; I hold them, 
and so will you, when you observe them closely, 
to be the most tranquil, contented, and happy ot 
men. 

They are the most tranquil, and why ? Because, 
being possessed of the true science of life, they are 
little surprised or dismayed at its storms, and where 
others would lose their senses, they say : " So long 
as our soul remains under the guardianship of 
God, all will be right, even should we be like Job 
on the dunghill." 

They are the most contented, and why? Be- 
cause, willing only what God wills, they do the 
good that is in their power, and patiently endure 
the evils they cannot prevent. Limiting their de- 
sires to the necessaries of life for themselves and 
their families, they know how to procure those 



J 6 The Peoples Ark. 

necessaries by their labor and good conduct, and 
their charity still finds something superfluous for 
the relief of the necessitous. 

They are the happiest, and why? Because, 
religion teaching them where true happiness is 
to be found, they look for it to God instead of 
demanding it from the state. They avoid those 
^reunions in which the proletarian disturber wal- 
lows in drunkenness and debauchery, loses his 
head, and dries up his blood by a political mania. 
In this way they keep themselves sound in mind 
and body, and if illness come upon them, they 
have the best of remedies; the balm of patience, 
the sweet assurance that they gain much by suf- 
fering. 

In fine, at that last hour which we all fear, the 
Christian feels that he is passing from darkness 
to light, from death to life, and he joyfully wel- 
comes the last words of religion : " Depart, Chris- 
tian soul/' 

You, who are overwhelmed with doubts and 
uncertainty, go to the death-bed of the faithful 
Christian, and you will feel religion revive in your 
hearts. 

Let us go farther. Do you know a truly Chris- 
tian family ? I mean one in which the father and 
mother, united by the sweetest and strongest ties, 
know, after thirty years, how to cherish and sup- 
port each other as they did on the first day of 
their marriage; a family whose children, the image 
of their parents, are but one heart and soul with 
them. No matter what may be the condition 
of that family in respect to fortune, is it not, both 



Fifth Entertainment. 77 

to itself and the beholder, a little image of 
heaven. 

Let us multiply the number of such families 
until they form a town; we shall have a little 
terrestrial paradise, in which the police and magis- 
trates find nothing to do, religion which reigns 
therein, having banished thence all vices, dis- 
orders, enmities, and law-suits ; the nineteen- 
twentieths of our evils. 

With this spectacle of the believers in the hea- 
ven of the Gospel, contrast that of the seekers 
after the socialistic paradise, who, if they do not 
yet dare to say with Proudhon and others, that 
religion is a great evil, say at least : Our religion 
is to enjoy life, and labor for the happiness of 
the people, by teaching the rich to live according 
to the holy laws of liberty, equality and fraternity. 

Those apostles have become common enough 
for you to form an idea of the happiness they 
enjoy, and which they are preparing for their 
dupes. Perhaps Mr. Mayor can tell us something 
on this subject. 

MAYOR. 

Yes, sir; the followers of the new church, though 
far less numerous than those of our good old reli- 
gion, give me a little more to do. Certainly they 
are not the most tranquil, contented and happy 
of men. Out of a hundred, we scarcely find two 
favored with enough of the gifts of fortune to 
dispense them from labor. 

Others not being able to escape from the tyranny 
of want except by the tyranny of labor, think such 
an order of things to be intolerable, and become 
7* ' 



78 The Peoples Ark. 

the instigators and abettors of revolutions. If they 
have an honest profession, a profitable trade, they 
abandon the exercise of it to others, and go to 
work for the good of the people in clubs, coffee- 
houses, public places, and houses which we do 
not name. 

To meet their expenses they borrow. Once in 
debt and insolvent, they become much more 
violent communists and socialists. If they have a 
family, and their wives or children take a fancy for 
the liberty of the appetite, the house, however well 
furnished it may have been, is soon empty. When 
liberty has emptied the house, equality requires 
that others should empty theirs; if they refuse, 
fraternity devotes them to death. 

As soon as this kind of people spreads through 
a town, all the devils enter into it. The crucifix 
and the image of the Blessed Virgin are no longer 
sufficient to protect the doors; locks must be 
multiplied, old carbines and revolvers must be 
polished, and cartridges and powder be kept near 
the holy water. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir ; as soon as men cease to aspire to 
heaven, they find the earth too small for them, and 
begin to murder one another. Could God have 
explained Himself more clearly on the matter of 
our destiny, than by making our faith in eternal 
life the necessary condition of our peace and tran- 
quillity in the present? 

In a word, there is no one, who, on a little 
reflection, cannot understand and feel this truth. 



Fifth Entertainment. 79 

It is evident that the tendencies of man are 
supernatural, that is to say, that they rise above 
the order of all actual things. His destiny, then, 
must be supernatural. Therefore, when Chris- 
tianity speaks of the sovereign life awaiting us 
in the bosom of our Father who is in heaven, it 
is less a mystery which it proposes to our reason, 
than the necessary solution of a mystery of our 
nature. 

In the next entertainment we shall examine the 
necessary conditions which God has attached to 
our admission into the sojourn of eternal life. 




SIXTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Necessity of trial and combat— Man's defeat — Dialogue 
with a free-thinker. 

HE Christian religion tells us that we are 
" heirs of God and co-heirs of Jesus Christ," 
on one condition, however. It is, that in 
order to enter into the glory of the Divine 
Chief of the elect, we will have to pass like Him 
through the fiery trial. * Is the condition too 
hard? 

Should not the infinite dignity of heirs of God, 
which gives us a right to the eternal enjoyment of 
the Most High, and to all that He has created, 
have required a suitable education ? Would it 
not have deserved a few days of trial and combat? 
Do you think, my friends, that God would have 
acted more generously towards us if He had given 
us heaven without any effort on our part ? I beg 
you, Mr. Mayor, to tell us what you think of it. 

MAYOR. 

To tell the truth, sir, we are all so lazy, such 
enemies of pain and labor, that the greater number 
of men, not to say all, would be very well content 



* S. Paul. 
80 



Epist. to Romans, ch. viii. 17. 



Sixth Entertainment. 81 

with a heaven into which they could enter easily, 
and without one drop of sweat on their foreheads. 
It remains to be known if that reunion of idlers 
would be as beautiful as the heaven of the apostles, 
martyrs, confessors, and virgins. It is possible 
that our Heavenly Father, who loves us much 
better than we love ourselves, might judge other- 
wise. 

Jesus Christ tells us that the kingdom of heaven 
suffers violence, and that only those who do them- 
selves violence are received into it ; that He Him- 
self had to suffer before entering into His glory.* 
It seems to me, then, that we ought to believe 
Him. By entering into heaven without having 
combated, we would, no doubt, enjoy exemption 
from every evil ; we would have, also, every good, 
save one of great value, I mean merit 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir, and merit is something so great, even 
in the judgment of men, that every noble and 
well-taught heart prefers merit without honors, 
to honors without merit. I will cite one example 
among thousands. 

In the time of Louis XIV., the Due de Villeroi 
and Fabert, the grandson of the bookseller, were 
both marshals of France. The first owed his 
baton to favor, the second had won it by his valor, 
wounds, and noted feats of arms. 

What soldier would not have preferred the role 
of Fabert, so poor in titles of nobility, but so great 

* S. Luke, ch. xxiv. 



82 The Peoples Ark. 

on the field of battle, to that of the great favorite, 
who was of so little account in the army, that 
when he was captured in bed by Prince Eugene, at 
the siege of Cremona, in 1702, his officers and 
soldiers were overjoyed? 

Those among you, my friends, (and they are 
the most numerous) who are obliged to labor 
very hard in order to support a numerous family 
and pay their taxes, judge, no doubt, that their 
condition is hard when compared to that of those 
who are called the rich and happy of the world. 
Well, they will judge far otherwise when, having 
received their marshal's baton in the mansions 
of eternal glory, they will learn the value of suf- 
fering, and the end of all worldly enjoyments. 
Until that hour arrive, let them meditate on the 
words of our good Master: Blessed are they who 
live, like me, in poverty, labor, privation and 
tears ; heaven, with its inexhaustible treasures and 
eternal joys is theirs. 

Doubtless, your zealous pastor and the excellent 
teacher who seconds him in the important work 
of your children's education, would desire that 
they might be all angels by their wisdom and 
intelligence. Their labors would be less severe 
and more fruitful. Yes; but with less pain and 
more satisfaction here below, they should find 
less glory above, where, according to one of our 
prophets : Those who shall have taught justice to 
their brethren, shall shine eternally as stars.* 

Again, your Mayor and all those who cooperate 



* Daniel, ch. xii. 5. 



Sixth Entertainment. 83 

with him in the administration of city affairs 
would, doubtless, be glad to find in all minds a 
just appreciation of their acts, of their solicitude 
for the public good. They would also wish in 
the superior administration, less pretension to the 
regulation of affairs of which they know nothing, 
less desire to make its agents responsible for its 
mistakes. But it is devotedness repaid with in- 
gratitude, vexation, and injustice, which forms 
the heavenly crown of Christian administrators. 
On the day of the great judgment they will not 
be asked : Have you done great things, etc. ? 
But — What have you suffered in order to do 
good and combat evil ? 

This explains very well, my friends, why God, 
who has a great desire of our good, and our true 
greatness, has wished to give us an occasion of 
meriting, and has made our first existence a time 
of trial and combat. It is, also, I think, a suffi- 
cient refutation of the immoral absurdities of the 
reformers of the sixteenth century, such as Luther, 
Calvin, and other doctors of Protestantism, who 
dare to sustain, as an article of faith, that man can 
be saved by faith alone in the merits of Christ, 
that he who has that faith ascends to heaven even 
were he guilty of one hundred thousand adulteries 
and murders, and that the virtuous soul that be- 
lieves in the necessity of good works, descends 
into hell with all its virtues. Thus it was that 
those false prophets who accused the Catholic 
Church of corrupting the Bible, and concealing 
from the people the true word of Christ, immea- 
surably outraged the Bible, which, from beginning 



84 The Peoples Ark. 

to end, is one long exhortation to practise good 
works, and fly from all iniquity. Thus it was that 
they mocked at Christ and His apostles, whose 
entire doctrine and example were all directed to 
lead -us to crucify our desires, and to practise 
every virtue. 

It is just to observe that the greater number ot 
the Protestants of our day have abandoned those 
detestable principles, which would make society 
a hell. Would that they might understand that 
the men who overturned Europe in order to 
spread them, were only the instruments of the 
enemy of God and men ! 

TEACHER. 

Allow me, sir, to submit to you a difficulty 
which somewhat disturbs my neighbors. Struck 
at what you have said of the necessity of good 
works and the importance of merit, they conclude 
that something will be wanting to the happiness 
of those little innocent souls who owe heaven 
only to the grace of Baptism. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

No, my friends, nothing will be wanting to the 
happiness of those angels. If they have not per- 
sonal merit, they have as members of the Christian 
family, their share in the merits of all. This is 
the great advantage of the Communion of Saints, 
that Catholic dogma which flows from the capital 
truth that God wishes all men to be as one, and 
that the strong should labor for the weak. Do 
we not find this communion in the social and 
political order ? 



Sixth Entertainment. 85 

Who is the good citizen, however obscure he 
may be, who does not rejoice in his country's 
glory, who does not suffer in her reverses and 
humiliations ? 

On the day of a great victory, the soldier of 
the reserve-corps is none the less victorious 
although he be out of the range of the enemy's 
cannon. It is true that he will not be given the 
cross or epaulettes, like him who has captured the 
enemy's flag or rescued his own, but he will very 
justly have a share in the general merit of the 
army. 

Well, it is the same in the grand Christian army 
fighting for the conquest of heaven, and with much 
stronger reason, for our religious union is more 
grand, more intimate than is our national union, 
our union in the ranks of the army. 

Those children dead before the struggle, are 
reserve-corps, which, although not having had 
occasion to combat, have none the less right to 
the common fruits of the victory. 

Among the men who attain the age of reason, 
and live long enough to take part in the trial 
and engage in the combat with vice and error, 
some yield, throw down their arms, and pass to 
the enemy. On the day of retribution, those 
cowards and traitors shall be degraded, and 
banished forever from the ranks of triumphant 
humanity. 

Many limit themselves to the performance of 
their duty; they shall receive the crown of the 
faithful soldier. 

Very many fight like ten, twenty, or a hundred, 
8 



86 The Peoples Ark. 

and take many prizes from the enemy. To these, 
the brave among the brave, the just Remuneratof 
will distribute dignities and grades, from the simple 
stripe to the marshal's baton. And in the army 
of the elect, united by perfect sentiments of justice 
and charity, there will be unanimous approval of 
the distinctions awarded to high martial deeds, 
the glory of which redounds to the whole body. 
Without those victories won by the bravery of 
all and the heroism of some, what would the 
heavenly militia be? Only an army of parade, 
composed of idle soldiers and commanded by 
favorites. 

The human family having been placed on earth 
only for trial and warfare, its first two chiefs must 
encounter a tempter, an enemy; for without temp- 
tation, no trial; without an enemy, no combat. 
Do not ask, then, my friends, why God allowed 
Satan to mislead Eve, and trouble the happy 
family in the terrestrial paradise. 

We have seen in the preceding entertainments 
that the heavenly Preceptor had neglected nothing 
to enlighten our first parents and prepare them 
for the attack. 

To test their fidelity to the divine teachings it 
was natural that the father of lies should give 
them a lesson opposed to the first. He did so, 
and you know with what success. 

Nothing is more just than that we deplore that 
catastrophe, but there would be great injustice 
and ingratitude in throwing the blame on God. 
It was, plainly, the interest of Adam and Eve, as 
also of their numerous family, that they should 



Sixth Entertainment. 87 

fight and ennoble themselves by victory. That 
their triumph might be meritorious, it was neces- 
sary it should depend en themselves to vanquish 
or be vanquished. 

God had done everything to facilitate their 
victory; if they were vanquished, it was because 
they willed it. To ask why God permitted them 
to abuse their liberty, is to ask why, instead of 
two free and intelligent beings, God did not give 
us two automata to be our father and mother. 

With regard to original sin and its conse- 
quences, you must have heard, my friends, a thou- 
sand objections, which may all be reduced to the 
following. It was only justice in God to punish 
Adam and Eve, but what cruelty, or rather, what 
absurdity, in Him to involve all mankind in their 
disgrace! What shall we think of a religion which 
places this at the head of all her dogmas ? 

Well, this objection, so fair in appearance, is, at 
the bottom, only great nonsense. In fact, it not 
only denies an historical fact, constantly believed 
by Jews, Christians, and even pagans,* but it also 
denies facts which come under our eyes, and 
overturns our fundamental ideas of man and 
society. This is what I am about to demonstrate 
to you, my friends, in a short dialogue with a free- 
thinker. 

" Do you believe," — I will say to this man who 
treats original sin as an absurd fable — " do you 
believe that all men have descended from Adam 
and Eve ?'' 

* Reveil du Peuple. Lesson ii. 



88 The Peoples Ark. 

"The Bible says so, but I cannot believe that 
history." 

" If you do not believe that history, the only 
one which teaches us of the origin of man and the 
world, your philosophy has no foundation, and 
cannot soar very high. It is above all, forbidden 
you to speak of humanity, or fraternity, for there 
is no fraternity for those who have no common 
father; there is no humanity or unity of species 
where all the individuals come from no one knows 
where. In your system, there shall be, if you 
wish, points of resemblance between men, such as 
there are between different kinds of monkeys, but 
the Frenchman cannot say to the German, the 
Italian, the Chinese, and the Negro : ' Thou art 
bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh/ You 
do not believe in the fact of human fraternity ; 
very well; but can you not, at least, believe in 
the possibility of the fact?" 

"That possibility is not proved." 

" You have, then, never observed a fact exces- 
sively common and already ancient. It is that 
men, instead of coming from no one knows where, 
proceed from one another in virtue of a law, 
mysterious, no doubt, yet of whose existence it 
would be folly to doubt. And I beg you to 
observe that the law of propagation is such, that 
if by a disposition of Providence, our species 
was suddenly to disappear from the earth with 
the exception of one couple, this new Adam 
and his consort would be sufficient to repeople 
the earth. This point conceded, is not the possi- 
bility of the historical fact of the Bible, viz : that 



Sixth Entertainment. 89 

all men have proceeded from one, clearly demon- 
strated ?" 

" Be it so : but what conclusion is to be drawn 
from it? 

" This : — If it is possible that we proceed from 
Adam and Eve, is it not equally possible that Adam 
and Eve have engendered us to their image and like- 
ness ? Let us, again, suppose that our first parents 
had by their misconduct ceased to be perfect, 
angelic, and endowed with all those prerogatives 
with which they had been gifted by the goodness 
of the Creator, and that by their folly and ingrati- 
tude they had become like us, miserable men, 
filled with weakness, with the germs of death in 
their physical constitution, and inordinate passions 
in their souls ; is it not natural to suppose that 
those two poor parents, instead of giving birth to 
angels, would have been able to communicate 
only what they themselves possessed — a nature 
full of weakness and misery ? It is true that the 
corruption of our nature in Adam remains a 
mystery, but is not our descent from Adam by 
way of generation, also a profound mystery? 
Then, why should you judge this possible and 
credible, and that absurd ?" 

"There is a vast difference. I see men eno-en- 
dering others, but I have never seen fathers trans- 
mit original sin with life to their children. " 

"What, sir! you have never perceived that chil- 
dren receive with life, the germs of every vice, and 
of all maladies of soul and body; that they are 
born with a fund of ignorance and corruption, and 
with inclinations to evil, which give terrible work 



9<3 The People s Ark. 

to those who have to raise them? Well, that fund 
of moral and physical disorder, which has made 
sensible man, pagan, as well as Christian, say: 'An 
infinitely wise and good God could not have 
created man in such a state/ that fund, I say, is 
original sin. In rejecting this as an absurdity, you 
go against the direct evidence of facts." 

" I do not admit, sir, the natural corruption of 
man. Children are born good, but society, such 
as superstition and despotism have made it, spoils 
them." 

Behold, my friends, the folly which the incre- 
dulous are obliged to sustain. To the faith of 
mankind, to the teachings of the Catholic Church, 
to the evidence of a fact known by all fathers, 
mothers, nurses and teachers, they oppose the 
dream of John James Rousseau on the native 
goodness of man, as given in his Entile. 

I will not stop to combat that dream, in which 
Rousseau himself did not believe, since he always 
refused to raise the little angels wlr'ch his concubine 
gave him, 

Neither will I recall what I have said elsewhere: 
that those who deny original sin are living proofs 
of it* 



* Eeveil du Peuple. Lesson ii. 




SEVENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Of what God could have done, and of what He did — 
Futility and injustice of our complaints. 

S soon as it was certain that Adam and Eve 
had thrown down their arms and said to 
Satan, " Be our master," it seems to me, my 
friends, that God had to determine between 
two things ; either to do what religion teaches 
He has done, or allow things to go on, and say- 
to the guilty ones, "Your will be done." 

Satan was only waiting for that word, to finish 
what he had begun, and carry his two pupils into 
the kingdom of eternal torments. Once there, 
our unfortunate parents would have lost the power 
and the idea of generating us, and nonentity would 
have been our portion. Would that have been 
better than our present condition ? I do not think 
so; and you, probably, are of my opinion. 

With a God, such as men would make Him, 
the part of strict justice would, no doubt, have 
prevailed; and by abandoning to their fate those 
creatures who had traitorously abandoned him, 
Jehovah would have shown greater regard for 
justice and. humanity than did the great Jupiter 
of the Greeks and Romans. Mythology tells us 
that his wife Juno having given him a misshapen 

91 



92 The People s Ark. 

and deformed child, he became so enraged that 
with one kick he precipitated him from heaven to 
earth.* 

The God of charity, at the sight of His most 
beautiffil creatures transformed into beasts by their 
obedience to Satan's blasphemies, felt more com- 
passion than anger, and instead of turning away 
from those miserable beings, He went in search 
of them. 

They, as you know, hid themselves, which 
sinners still do, blindly imagining that if they 
forget God, God will also forget them. The 
fugitives being found, it was necessary first, in 
order to dispose them for pardon, to obtain an 
avowal of their crime. 

Before it was raised to the dignity of a sacra- 
ment by Jesus Christ, confession was, as it still 
is everywhere, a natural law of our moral consti- 
tution, which, in order to deliver itself from 
the venom of sin, feels the necessity of expec- 
torating it. 

Hence the universal proverb, " Without confes- 
sion, no remission. " 

To facilitate the work God interrogated the 
guilty: "Adam, why did you hide?" 

* This god, called Vulcan, or the god of fire, was not killed, 
thanks to his quality of immortality, but he remained always 
lame, which did not, however, hinder him from superintend- 
ing Jupiter's forges, and espousing Venus, the most im- 
modest of the goddesses. 

It is unnecessary to observe that this story was for the 
pagans, the apology for infanticide, as the worship of Venus 
was the adoration of the most unbridled lust. 



Seventh Entertainment. 93 

"Because I was naked." The liar! 
"And who told you that you were naked? ts 
it not because you have eaten of the forbidden 
fruit?" 

"The woman whom you gave me to be my 
companion, gave me the fruit, and I did eat." 

You see, my friends, that our father Adam 
had made great progress in the school of the 
other, and hearing him, one would suppose, that 
all the evil, if evil there had been, lay between 
his wife and Him who had created her. 

"And you, Eve, why have you done this?" 
"The serpent deceived me, and I did eat." 
This was to say to the Creator of the serpent, 
that it was He who ought to strike His breast 
and cry, Mea culpa. 

Behold here a confession passably diabolical, 
yet made to God in person : this, we may say, 
en passant, is a bad augury for those who say, 
"We confess to God, and not to priests.''* 

With such dispositions in the guilty, you under- 
stand, my friends, that God could not wholly 
absolve them, without violating all the principles 
of morality. 

What, then, did he do ? Like the good father 
who strikes indirectly, God fulminated His male- 
diction against the serpent and him who had 
possessed it; and He inspired hope into the hearts 
of his victims in saying to him : " Thou thinkest 
that thou hast made an end of man, but I intend 
the war to recommence. From the womb of the 
woman into which thou hast carried death, shall 
come forth a new woman and a new man, who, 



54 The People s Ark. 

while repairing this day's defeat, shall crush thy 
head." 

Then addressing Himself to the two unhappy 
beings, whose hearts by that merciful promise had 
doubtless been predisposed to love and repentance, 
He announced to the woman the pains attached 
to her condition of mother, and her obligation of 
remaining, thenceforward, subject to her husband's 
power. 

On Adam He imposed the obligation to labor 
hard, in order to conquer the sterility of the earth, 
on which he had drawn a curse, and to draw 
thence what was necessary for his wants and those 
of his family; in fine, the penalty that his body 
should return for centuries to the dust from which 
it had been taken. 

When closely examined, what was that new 
existence which God granted to Adam and Eve, 
that existence intermediate between the happy 
state in which they had been created, but of which 
they had deprived themselves, and that state of 
eternal reprobation which they had incurred ? 

It was, evidently, a great favor. 

What is it for us? A misfortune, if you wish, 
but a misfortune preferable to nonentity, which 
would have been our lot, had not God stopped 
our first parents on the very brink of the abyss. 

This misfortune can be easily supported by those 
who treat it as a fable, as well as the crime that 
caused it. It is, moreover, very salutary, for were 
it not for the sting of our miseries, and the cease- 
less attacks of death, would we ever think of one 
important point, that we are only in this world for 



Seventh Entertainment. 95 

trial and combat, and that the land of repose and 
enjoyment is to be found elsewhere? 

Such, then, my friends, is the history of our foil 
in Adam. Is there anything in it injurious to right 
reason, or unworthy of the goodness of God ? Is 
not the association of all men in that misfortune a 
necessary consequence of that law of humanity 
which makes us all members of one body, all 
bound to one another, and incapable of profiting by 
the goods of the community, without also sharing 
in its evils? On this principle is founded the 
beautiful law of Christian charity. Being all of 
one flesh and blood, we ought each to feel the 
good or evil which befalls another. 

By rejecting the fact of original sin, the free- 
thinkers deny the unity of the human race, take 
away the foundations of universal fraternity, and 
for the duty of charity substitute a brutal egotism, 
which cries, " Every one for himself.'* 

Finally, the same religion which explains so 
well our miseries and sorrows, by teaching us that 
our poor humanity has received a cruel wound 
by the fall of our first mother and first chief, 
teaches us also that it has pleased Divine Charity, 
not only to raise and heal us, but to ennoole us 
immeasurably by giving us as our Mother that 
Woman, who in grace and power surpasses all 
other creatures; and as our Chief, the God-Man 
who unites in His divine person all the greatness 
of divinity and humanity. It tells us that instead 
of being the children of a mere man. we may be, 
if we wish, by our incorporation with Jesus Christ, 
the true children of God, partakers of the divine 



96 The People s Ark. 

nature, according to the expression of the apostle 
St. Peter.* Therefore, in acknowledging, also, 
with St. Paul, that where sin had abounded, grace 
has superabounded, the Church sings on Holy 
Saturday: " O happy fault of Adam, which has 
merited for us so great a Redeemer!" 

MAYOR. 

It may be true that Christians have gained more 
than they lost in the disaster of the terrestrial 
paradise, but is it true of so many millions of men, 
who, in consequence of the ignorance and corrup- 
tion inherited from Adam, have died, or are now 
dying in the darkness of idolatry ? Have not 
those victims of the first prevarication a right to 
complain of their fate ? 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

I know of none who are excluded from glory 
on account of original sin, save children who have 
died without baptism. Now, everything leads us 
to believe that those victims will have no reason to 
complain. The sight and enjoyment of the infinite 
Being are favors which God owed to no creature, 
whether angelic or human. An existence prefer- 
able to nonentity and naturally happy, is the por- 
tion which creative goodness owes to the beings 
who have not placed themselves personally and 
freely in opposition to His laws. Such is to be, 
according to the strongest probabilities, the con- 
dition of those children. They will be able to 



* II. EpiBt., eh. i. 4. 



Seventh Entertainment. 97 

bless God for having given being to them in pre- 
ference to so many who remain in nonentity, and 
for having preserved them from the eternal fires. 

As to adult idolaters, who are subjected to the 
trial, I maintain that those who have been lost, 
or who are still being lost, are the victims, not of 
original sin, but of their resistance to those lights 
which God grants, more or less abundantly, to 
every soul that makes the voyage of life. 

In fact, my friends, if the sun of the true reli- 
gion has, at times, been eclipsed in the world, yet 
it has never set. It continually enlightened the 
first human generations from Adam to Noah. The 
latter did not die until 350 years after the Deluge, 
so the light of religion must have been preserved 
pure until about the year of the world 2000. 

Then appeared idolatry among the descendants 
of Cham, and we find it spread very wide by the 
Egyptian colonies, by commerce, and by fleets 
from Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage. But it is evident 
they did not at first arrive to that degree of igno- 
rance and corruption into which they sank later, 
and that the sons of God long fought, with more 
or less success, against the degrading inventions 
of the sons of the earth. It is, above all, probable, 
that the numerous families, who, after the confu- 
sion of tongues, dispersed far and wide under the 
conduct of their chiefs, would preserve intact for 
centuries their primitive religion and faith in the 
promised Redeemer, a faith which we find, although 
more or less disfigured, among all pagan nations. 

The ancient traditions concerning the Redeemer 
and the time of His coming were, it seems, long pre- 
9 



98 The Peoples Ark. 

served among the Chinese; for about the middle of 
the first century of the Christian era, the then reign- 
ing emperor dispatched messengers to the West, to 
search after the religion of the true Son of Heaven. 
Unfortunately, his envoys, not being guided by a 
star, as were the Magi, took a wrong direction and 
introduced into China the worship of idols, which 
very probably had been unknown there until then. 
The same causes may have long preserved other 
nations, so happy as to be situated at a distance 
from the great centres of corruption, where the 
multitude of people, and the heat and fruitfulness 
of the climate rapidly developed the carnal pas- 
sions, of which idolatry was the adoration regu- 
lated by Satan. 

Let us, also, observe, my friends, that as Sacred 
History, from the vocation of Abraham, treats in 
general only of the chosen people and the nations 
with whom they came in contact, we must not 
judge the morality of all nations by that of the 
Egyptians, Chananeans, Assyrians, and others. 
Those, as we have said, were the most corrupt. 
Again it is from the very bosom of countries 
buried in darkness that we see the God of Charity 
raise and preserve, with great trouble, the Chris- 
tian pharos of the ancient world, I mean the 
religion and history of the present, past and future; 
the religion engraved on the stones of Sinai amid 
thunder and lightning; the history recorded in 
the Bible; the religion and history both con- 
fided to the care of the Jewish nation, more last- 
ing than marble, immortal as the Bible. 

The free-thinkers laugh at that history of the 



Seventh Entertainment. 99 

Jewish nation, which is but one long chain of 
miraculous events. Well, before laughing at the 
chain, it would be well to wait and see the last 
link of it ; and again it shows very little honesty 
or good sense to laugh at the Jews in view of 
what they have done. You understand me, my 
friends, that without all those miracles, the flood 
of idolatry would have rolled over the children 
of Israel, and the pharos of ancient Christianity. 
They accuse the God of the Christians of having 
done nothing to save the ancient world, and when 
we show the works of His mercy, they cry : " It 
is incredible !" Such is their logic. 

Let no one say that the Jews were too insigni- 
ficant a na.ion, their country too little known to 
attract attention. All history establishes the con- 
trary. Again, seven hundred years before Christ, 
at an epoch when the shadows of error were 
deepest, Salmanazar, King of Assyria, was sent 
to destroy the kingdom of Israel, and disperse 
the ten tribes to the four winds. Where did not 
those poor exiles go ? Colonies of them have 
been found in the centre of China, and in the 
heart of Africa, where they had settled long before 
the Christian era. Later, we find that one of the 
successors of Alexander the Great caused the 
Bible to be translated into Greek, at that time 
the language of the learned. We know, also, 
that the greatest princes of Asia, and later, the 
Romans, esteemed it an honor and a duty to 
contribute towards the worship of the God of 
Abraham and David, and that the court of the 
temple of Jerusalem was reserved for the Gentiles. 



IOO The People s Ark. 

Let us add to those external means of teaching-, 
the thousand interior and mysterious ways in 
which Divine Charity can touch and enlighten 
souls; and also the examples of religious faith 
and perfect virtue, which the Gospel reveals in 
the Roman army, and which Jesus Christ pro- 
poses as models to the Jews :* the result will be 
with you, my friends, as with me, the conviction, 
that if before the coming of the Redeemer, so 
many souls remained in the shadows of death, 
the reason for it is given in the words of the 
Gospel: "Men loved darkness more than light, 
because their works were evil."t 

Before speaking of the prodigies of divine mercy, 
operated since the coming of Jesus Christ, for 
the conversion of modern idolaters, let us for a 
moment cast a glance at idolatry, that true mas- 
terpiece of the perversity of Satan and human 
corruption. I have already signalized elsewherej 
its causes and principal effects, but we cannot 
speak of them too often. The horrors of the 
idolatrous world are the best introduction to the 
history of the Gospel, and you, my friends, will 
never so well understand what you owe to the 
Christian faith, so long as you remain ignorant 
of the depth of that abyss of misery and abjection 
whence it has drawn you. 

The enlightenment and social institutions of 
infidel nations shall be the subject of the following 
entertainments. 

* Matth. ch. viii. 10.— Acts x. 1. f S. John iii. 19. 

X Reveil du Feuple, Lesson iv. and v. 



EIGHTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Amenities of ancient paganism in matters of belief, 
morals, and social institutions. 

O learn what we owe to Christian revelation, 
and what can be done in matters of faith by- 
human reason when not directed by God, we 
have but to cast a glance over the religions 
of infidel nations, whether ancient or modern. 

You know, my friends, that in speaking of those 
nations the Bible tells us they are buried in the 
shadows of death, and that their gods are demons. 
Nothing more true. 

The system of those nations is composed of 
nothing but absurd dreams, foolish and ridiculous 
ideas and abominable practices. I should fear to 
be disbelieved in what I am about to tell you, did 
I not know you to be convinced that Plato Pun- 
chinello is incapable of deceiving you. Besides, 
the Mayor and Teacher are here, and they have 
sufficient knowledge to understand, that, far from 
exaggerating, I speak of but a small part of the 
extravagances of paganism. 
Let us begin. 

You have all heard of the Egyptians, the most 
ancient of nations, and the most renowned for the 
wisdom of its laws and the cultivation of the 



9* 



IOI 



102 The Peoples Ark. 

arts. Well, if any one had asked them whence 
came the world, with all it contains, they would 
have answered, " From the egg of a crocodile." 
They worshipped that horrible beast, which they 
were careful to supply with human flesh. When 
a mother heard that her child, while playing on 
the banks of the Nile, had been devoured by a 
crocodile, she rejoiced at having been found 
worthy to regale her god. 

With the crocodile, the Egyptians worshipped 
also the ox, cat, hawk, vulture, and a multitude of 
other animals, most of them carnivorous. They 
devoted enormous revenues to the lodging and 
food of those gods, who were served by persons 
of the highest rank. Their deaths were a public 
calamity ; their funerals, the ruin of their devotees. 
In case of fire, the Egyptian, before thinking ot 
extinguishing the flames or preserving his family, 
was bound to save his cat, ibis and hawk. Woe 
to him, who, even accidentally, killed one of those 
sacred animals ! A learned author has well said, 
that in Egypt one would run much less risk in 
killing a man than a cat* 

The Chananeans, Phoenicians and Carthaginians, 
who, by their commerce and industry were the 
English of the ancient world, adored gods less 
ridiculous, perhaps, than those of the Egyptians, 
but far more execrable. Not only the Bible, but 
profane histories, also among others that of Dio- 
dorus Siculus, tell us that among those nations of 



* Goquet. Origin of Laws, Arts, and Sciences. T. i., Book 
vi., ch. 11. 



Eighth Entertainment. 103 

common origin, mothers went, with great cere- 
mony, to deposit one of their children in the burn- 
ing arms of the statues of the gods Moloch or 
Baal, whence those innocent victims fell into a 
furnace, while loud music drowned their cries. 
Diodorus relates, that during the siege of Carthage 
by the tyrant Agathocles of Sicily, they immolated 
in this manner two hundred children of the first 
families, and that three hundred persons accused 
of having provoked the god, by their negligence 
in offering their children, were forced to cast them- 
selves into the divine furnace. 

The young persons of both sexes who escaped 
the furnace, had to go to places consecrated to 
Astarte or Astaroth, to lose what was more 
precious than life. 

In reading sacred history, many of us have, no 
doubt, found rather severe the order which God 
gave the Hebrews to exterminate a great part 
of the inhabitants of Palestine, but our surprise 
ceases when we learn the abominable state of 
morals among those people, and their incorrigi- 
bility. God, who ardently desires the salvation 
of mankind, acted in this like the skilful sur- 
geon, who, in order to save the body, cuts off 
a gangrened limb. Let us pass to the Greeks 
and Romans, so famed for skill in war and the 
fine arts. . 

Their poets, philosophers, and historians were 
much amused at the stupidity of the Egyptians, 
w T ho, besides the animals we have named, wor- 
shipped also the leek and the onion, yet those 
Greeks and Romans were not much wiser. 



104 The Peoples Ark. 

The father of all the gods of Rome and Greece 
was Saturn, or Time, a kind of ogre, accustomed 
to devour his children alive. This would have 
made an end of both the divine and human species, 
had not Rhea or Cybele, his wife, deceived him, 
After giving birth to her children, she confided 
them to a goat, to be nursed, and told her husband 
that she had brought forth stones, or the like. 
In this way she preserved Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, 
Juno, and Ceres. 

The history of those gods and goddesses, and 
of the offspring with which they peopled the hea- 
vens and earth, is somewhat amusing, but at 
the same time so full of obscenities, that I advise 
you, my friends, to read rather the history of the 
Old and New Testaments, and I believe that Mr. 
Teacher is of the same opinion. 

TEACHER. 

Yes, sir; I have some knowledge of those heroes 
of mythology, and I also know, well enough, that 
among the honest fathers and mothers who are 
listening to you, not one would wish their son 
or daughter to bear the least resemblance to any 
of those deities. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

I am persuaded of that. Let us resume our 
review. 

Those of our Gallic ancestors who had not 
adopted the fables of the Greeks and Romans, 
trusted, for the origin of things, to the sayings 
of the Druids, of whose religion we know very 



Eighth Entertainment. 105 

little, except that they attributed a divine virtue 
to the serpent's egg and to the mistletoe of 
the oak, and offered up an immense number of 
human lives in their abominable sacrifices. The 
celebrated Julius Csesar, who subjected the Gauls 
to the Romans, and who has written the history 
of his campaigns, relates that our ancestors, in 
their religious ceremonies, filled enormous statues 
made of osier, with living men and women, and 
set them on fire in honor of their divinities. 

Let us see how the Scandinavians, the people 
of Northern Europe, explained the origin of the 
world, before they learned the Christian doctrine 
from the apostles of Jesus Christ. The god Odin, 
(whose grandfather Buri came into existence after 
the mythic cow Audhumla had licked the snow,) 
being aided by his two brothers, Vili and Ve, 
killed the giant Ymir. Of his flesh they made 
the land ; of his bones, the rocks ; with his blood, 
the sea; of his skull, the heavens; and of his 
brains, the clouds. 

Odin found afterwards the trunks of two trees, 
one an ash, the other an alder, out of which he 
made the first man and woman. 

The northern deities were very fond of human 
flesh ; Odin was called the Lord of the fatten. 

Let us now speak of the best instructed pagans 
of modern, times, that is, the Chinese and Hindoos, 
who have, for centuries, possessed the elements 
of our civilization, but are wanting in that, how- 
ever, which gives value to everything else. 

Ask the Chinese, "Who made the world ? Who 
governs it?" One will tell you it is Foo-Hee, 



io6 The People s Ark. 

whom he worships under the form of a marmoset, 
and about whose works he will relate many droll 
tales. Another will teach you that it is the Grand 
Lama, or Buddha, living always in Thibet. And 
such will be the answer of from one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred millions of Chinese, Tar- 
tars, etc. 

If you address yourself to the learned classes, 
mandarins and officers, three-fourths of them will 
smile at such a foolish question, and will tell 
you that the god which occupies them most, is 
the stomach and its dependencies. 

There, as elsewhere, those who wear feathers 
are taken for eagles, and their manners are adopted. 
To seize upon the most lucrative offices, and to 
devour the people under pretence of governing 
them, such is their religion. 

In India they will tell you that Brahma, the 
god of that country, after having slept for thou- 
sands of years, began, one day, to work. 

From his mouth sprang the divine class of 
Brahmans; from his shoulders, the caste of kings, 
governors, and warriors ; from his body, the race 
of agriculturists, artisans, and merchants; and 
from his foot, the laborers. The two lowest classes 
were so little considered in the religion of the 
Brahmans, that they were condemned to live in 
ignorance, and he who would teach them the law 
that conducts to heaven, would himself be con- 
demned to hell. To hold in horror strangers and 
pariahs (the outcasts from society); to kill them, 
if they should by chance enter the houses of 
people of caste ; to look on the Brahmans as the 



Eighth Entertainment. 107 

equals of the gods ; to venerate the cow and 
besmear themselves and their houses with its 
excrement ; to worship and feed the most terrible 
serpents; never to kill any animal, above all, the 
vermin which devour them ; to compel widows to 
burn themselves alive on the remains of their 
husbands, and to counsel the perfect devotees to 
drown themselves in the Ganges, or be crushed in 
processions beneath the car of their idols; such 
is an epitome of the religion of India, and I beg 
of you to believe that I have left the most shame- 
ful part in the shade. 

As I have chosen my examples from among 
the best known and most enlightened pagan 
nations of the ancient and modern world, it seems 
to me that I may be dispensed from speaking of 
the horrible religions of the barbarians of Africa 
and Central America, before its conquest. In 
those torrid regions we should find their gods to 
be still more bloodthirsty. 

Do we need stronger proofs, my friends, of the 
truth of what the Bible tells us, that the gods of 
the pagans are veritable demons, and that when 
a nation abandons the law of the true God, it is 
not able to give itself a religion, but receives one 
from Satan ? 

With gods so wicked, so debauched, so eager 
for blood and carnage, I leave you to imagine 
what their devotees must be. 

It is commonly said, and with good reason, 
that education moulds a man, and that the disciple 
is seldom better than the master. Now the edu- 
cation of a people is its religion; and that great 



108 The Peoples Ark. 

master, whose ideas, habits and morals it adopts, 
is its god. No one thinks himself obliged to live 
more wisely than the god he adores. 

What then could have been the state of public 
and private morality among nations that found the 
history of their deities to be only a tissue of adul- 
teries, rapes, and infamy, and beheld their altars 
reeking with human blood? Their morality could 
have been only abominable corruption and fright- 
ful cruelty. I will prove it by its effects. 

As I wish to be listened to and read by 
every one, particularly by youth, I will cast into 
oblivion that excess of impurity, and those hor- 
rible outrages which were everywhere heaped 
uppn human nature, and will speak only of the 
cruelty exhibited in the pagan code of laws and 
morality. And that I may not be accused of 
pointing out a few 7 of the most barbarous usages 
of barbarous nations, I will cite only those of the 
nations best known, most famous, and most pol- 
ished of antiquity, the Greeks and Romans. 

You have often heard the free-thinkers or their 
dupes, vaunting the liberty of these two nations. 
Well, I beg Mr. Teacher to tell us if liberty was 
so great in the republics of Greece, what .was the 
number of those who enjoyed it, and what the 
fate of those excluded from it. 

TEACHER. 

To tell the truth, sir, I have never calculated 
the number of freemen or slaves, but the latter, 
most certainly, far exceeded the former. I re- 
member that in Athens, where manners were more 



EigJilJi Entertainment 109 

gentle and the slaves less ill-treated, there were 
twenty thousand citizens, and four hundred thou- 
sand slaves, which gives twenty slaves to each 
master. In the Republic of Sparta, the proportion 
of slaves called HelotS, was much greater, and 
their fate was so fearful, that those unfortunates 
might have envied the fate of our beasts of burden. 
The Helot's clothing consisted only of a kind of 
cap and a garment of dog-skin, The master who 
fed them so well that they grew tall and robust, 
was fined, and his slaves w T ere killed. On one 
occasion they thus massacred two thousand of 
the handsomest. In fine, those who exercised the 
young citizens in the art of war, led them out 
to hunt the Helots. No one was considered a 
good soldier, if he had not maimed or killed a 
certain number of slaves.* 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Thanks, sir ; you have spoken like history. 
Behold, my friends, what was the liberty enjoyed 
by the greater number, that is by the lower 
classes, in those beautiful republics, so highly 
vaunted. The masses were only beasts, more to 
be pitied than our asses and mules, and ruled 
by a handful of masters well worthy of the gods 
they worshipped. You have remarked, sir, that 
the Athenians were the most humane of the Greeks 
towards their slaves. It is true ; but I beg you 
to remember that the Athenian philosophers seri- 
ously discussed the question: "Are slaves men, 



* Goquet. Origin of Laws, Arts, etc., T iii., Book vi., c. 3. 



no The Peoples Ark 

and have they rational souls ?" Those who 
answered in the affirmative, agreed that souls 
had been given them only that they might under- 
stand their masters' orders, and that they were, 
by their very nature, excluded from virtue and 
happiness. 

Let us now speak of Rome. The population 
of that capital of the world was two millions. 
Cicero, the most illustrious orator, philosopher, 
and consul of Rome, tells us, that out of that 
number, there were only two thousand citizens 
who owned anything — who were proprietors. By 
placing the number of poor citizens at ninety-eight 
thousand, which is high, we should have, in Rome 
alone, nineteen hundred thousand slaves, or nine- 
teen slaves to one freeman. We must not be sur- 
prised, since the famous historian Tacitus tells us, 
that the greater part of the senators and knights 
kept in their places from four to five hundred 
slaves, and that the families of the Roman lords 
had become veritable nations.* 

Such was the city. But what was the state of 
affairs in the country which provides for the city, 
as the city (when not inhabited by fools) provides 
for and renders the country prosperous? By 
whom was the country around Rome cultivated ? 
By millions and millions of slaves. And what 
was their condition ? Their lives depended on 
the humor of the intendant of each troop of slaves. 
This intendant was a freed slave, that is to say, 
one of the proudest and harshest of men, who 

* Annals, Book xiv., c. 44. 



Eighth Entertainment. 1 1 1 

wished to purchase his master's favor at the price 
of the sufferings and life of his subordinates. This 
tyrant had for his aids in his office of executioner, 
some vigorous slaves who were anxious to win 
the honor of enfranchisement, and every country 
house was provided with instruments of torture, 
of which we find a frightful description given by 
the Roman writers. 

Those worthy intendants and their officers, in 
order to incite the slaves to labor and form them 
to obedience, planted crosses here and there, on 
which they fastened those of whom they had to 
complain, or whom they desired to serve as warn- 
ings to others. 

During the day, the whip and the lash were 
plied on those poor human machines, save for the 
few short moments in which they were permitted 
to take their meals, and you can imagine what 
those meals were. When night came on, they 
were chained by the neck, hands and feet, and 
locked in subterraneous and infected places, in 
which you would not lodge your cattle. 

If the slave was attacked by a serious or tedious 
illness, he was either killed or abandoned. If the 
indisposition promised to be of short duration, he 
received some attention, so that a useful animal 
might be saved. When they became old and 
decrepit, the master who did not have them killed, 
or leave them to starve on his domain, delivered 
them to contractors, who transported them to 
desert islands. The celebrated Cato, reputed to 
be the greatest and most virtuous citizen of his 
time, says in a book still extant, that he does not 



112 The Peoples Ark. 

wish to have those slaves killed who have served 
well, but that neither ' should a proprietor be 
oblieed to feed the useless. He then advises 
masters to cause their slaves to be sold before 
they become wholly decrepit, so that they may 
make some profit on them. And history tells us 
that this excellent man always did himself that 
which he counselled to others. 

As to the city slaves, if their life was, in general, 
less severe, yet there was nothing to guarantee 
them against the most barbarous whims of their 
masters and mistresses. The law did not concern 
itself with those animals. That great lord w 7 ho 
judged proper to have them cut in pieces to feed 
the fishes of his pond, was none the less esteemed 
on that account. We see from the humorous 
poets that the Roman ladies were somewhat in 
the habit of causing to be crucified or cut in pieces, 
under their eyes, those slaves, whether male or 
female, who had displeased them, or on whom 
they wished to revenge their husbands' whims or 
lovers' infidelities. 

One word now on the frightful butcheries of the 
amphitheatre, of which, perhaps, you have never 
heard, as our liberal writers have tried to bury in 
oblivion the abominations from which Christianity 
has delivered us. 

The innumerable nation of slaves was not only 
obliged to lead a horrible existence in order to 
nourish the citizens and provide for their luxury, 
but it had also to labor for their amusement. And 
the most agreeable diversion of those monsters 
was to behold multitudes of slaves tearing one 



Eighth Entertainment. 113 

another to pieces, or being devoured by lions, 
tigers, panthers, and bears. 

In the beginning, those games cost daily the 
lives of only some scores of persons. In order to 
prolong the combat, they allowed the gladiators to 
cover themselves with defensive armor, but they 
soon wearied of such tedious work. They then 
compelled the gladiators to appear naked, so that 
no blow might fail, says Seneca, the first Roman 
philosopher who dared to criticise those spectacles.* 

They also deprived of their offensive weapons 
those who fought against the beasts, fearing that 
instead of being devoured by them, they should 
kill them, which would have been accounted a 
great loss. They even made a law, which for- 
bade under pain of death, the killing of the wild 
beasts of Asia and Africa, destined to devour men 
in the circus and amphitheatres. 

As the appetite increased in satisfying it, there 
was no other means of giving a great feast than 
by causing thousands of those unfortunate beings 
to be exterminated. 

All classes of persons, particularly women, were 
so passionately fond of those abominable games, 
that the illustrious emperor, Trajan, a prince other- 
wise humane, believed it his duty to give a show, 
in which perished in one day ten thousand gladia- 
tors, and eleven thousand wild beasts. f The his- 
torian Tacitus speaks of another feast at which 
nineteen thousand men were massacred.J 



* See his Letters, letter vii. f Pliny — Panegyric on Trajan. 
% Annals, Book xii. c. 3G. 
10* 



114 The Peoples Ark. 

You have often heard, my friends, of the almost 
infinite number of our martyrs, who, rather than 
deny what was then called the Christian supersti- 
tion, allowed themselves to be thrown to the lions 
and tigers in the amphitheatre. 

Well, those are the heroes, who, by their con- 
stancy, have caused the triumph of the religion of 
the God who died the death of a slave ; a triumph 
which has delivered at least nineteen-twentieths 
of the people of Europe, from the most horrible 
slavery. They are the friends of God and humanity, 
to whom you, especially, and the masses of our 
cities, boroughs, and country places, are indebted 
for not being beasts of burden, delivered over 
soul and body to a race of monsters, thirsting only 
for blood and pleasure. 

What, then, must be thought of those who 
come to tell you that the great obstacle to 
the enlightenment and civilization of nations is 
the religion of Jesus Christ, and those who 
preach it? 

MAYOR. 

As for me, I hold them to be very foolish or 
very wicked persons, whom it would be necessary 
to watch. But allow me, sir, to submit to you a 
question which has just occurred to me, and has 
probably suggested itself to others. 

How was it that among that nation of slaves, 
particularly the gladiators, exercised in the use of 
arms, there were not some courageous men to give 
to their unhappy companions the signal and 
example of revolt ? Were those unfortunates really 



Eighth Entertainment. 



"5 



men, or was it water that ran in their veins instead 
of blood? 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Your question, sir, is a very natural one, but the 
answer would occupy too much time ; allow me to 
leave it for the next entertainment. 







^^#J 



NINTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Why the slaves weee so patient — Servile wars — Amenities 
of the pagan family — Imperial crueltz — To whom we 

OWE THE ABOLITION OF THE WORSHIP OF TIGERS. 

i 

OWARDS the close of our last entertainment, 
Mr Mayor asked whether the innumerable 
slaves who covered pagan Europe were really 
men, that they supported so patiently their 
fearful condition, and whether, if instead of blood, 
they had not water in their veins. 

I have the honor to answer that blood is not 
enough to make men reasonable and courageous. 
The elephant, the horse and the ox have blood 
and nerves far more powerful than the strongest 
amongst us. Nevertheless a child may lead them, 
and they never ask themselves by what right he 
controls them as their master. 

There is no doubt but that pagan slaves had, 
like us, souls capable of reasoning. But what is 
a soul in perfect ignorance of all things? 

The reason why we do not understand the 
abjection and brutishness of those unfortunate 
creatures, is because we have had the happiness 
of imbibing Christianity with our milk. 

From our earliest infancy, religion has taught 
116 



Ninth Entertainment. 117 

us that all men are the cherished children of the 
same heavenly Father; that all are the issue of 
the blood of Adam, and of Noah, the second 
father of mankind ; that all have been redeemed 
by the blood of the Son of God ; that all are 
equally called to the inheritance of the eternal 
kingdom. 

Our children know that, at the tribunal of God, 
the powerful and the rich will make but a sorry 
figure, if the poor and the lowly be not there to 
take them under their protection, and say: " Lord, 
grant us their pardon ; for if they have done some 
evil, they have also done much good. It is to 
their charity we owe the relief of our miseries, 
and, above all, the happiness of knowing and 
loving thy law." 

Behold, my friends, what it is that renders 
slavery impossible among Catholics who know 
their religion. 

In order to enchain them, it would be necessary 
to exterminate them ; but again, a nation, however 
small or unimportant it may be, when it fights 
for the glory of God and its own salvation, is 
inexterminable. For this reason those dema- 
gogues, who would wish to make you their beasts 
of burden to labor for them, try to deprive you 
of the Catholic catechism, and to send away those 
who teach it to you. 

As to the pagan slaves, what could they know 
of the dignity of man ? You may well imagine 
that no pains were taken for the instruction of 
those miserable beings. If there were temples, 
they were not for them. Besides, the pagan 



1 18 The Peoples Ark. 

temples, were not, like our churches, places for 
instruction ; they assembled there only for sacri- 
fices and chants, most of them immodest, in honor 
of their gods. And, then, what were the ideas 
of even the best instructed pagans, with regard 
to the origin of man ? All that could be imagined 
of the most extravagant. 

As the Greeks had retained some remembrance 
of the Deluge, let us see how their mythology 
explained the second birth of mankind. Deuca- 
lion, King of Thessaly, and his wife Pyrrha, being 
the only ones preserved from the deluge, were 
ordered by Jupiter to repeople the world by cast- 
ing stones behind them. Those thrown by Deuca- 
lion were changed into men, and those of Pyrrha, 
into women. As to those philosophers, judicious 
enough to laugh at this absurd explanation, but 
not modest enough to confess their ignorance, 
they, like our atheists, said that men had sprung 
out of the earth. 

You can understand, my friends, that those 
ideas were not well calculated to inspire the pagans 
with respect for our nature. I have already told 
you what the greatest philosophers thought of 
slaves. Those who were willing to grant they 
had a soul, regarded them as an inferior species 
of men, destined by the gods to serve the real 
men. It must not, then, surprise us, that those 
unhappy beings, brutalized by misery and the 
want of all instruction, should have become habit- 
uated to the yoke, insupportable as it may appear 
to us. They believed in their obligation to suffer, 
as did their masters in their right to torment them. 



Ninth Entertainment. 1 1 9 

There occurred nevertheless, in Sicily, and even 
at the gates of Rome, revolts and wars of the 
slaves, so terrible that they almost stifled in blood 
that immense republic, at the time of its greatest 
glory. 

But who were the authors and sustainers of 
those wars ? They were brave foreign soldiers, 
reduced to slavery by the barbarity of their con- 
querors. 

The first leader of the revolted slaves in Sicily 
was a native of Syria named Eunus. In order to 
determine his companions to break their chains, it 
was necessary that he should speak in the name 
of the gods and work miracles. 

He placed in his mouth a nut filled w 7 ith sulphur, 
which he secretly set on fire; and blowing lightly, 
he seemed to vomit flames. But the most formid- 
able of the leaders of those insurrections was 
Spartacus, a Thracian by birth, who had been 
confined at Capua with other prisoners, to exercise 
himself in the arts of a gladiator, in order one day 
to amuse the Roman citizens and ladies by the 
blows he should give or receive. 

This man, gifted with prodigious strength of 
mind and body, incited his companions (most of 
them from Gaul, and born like himself beneath the 
sun of liberty,) to force their prison. They gained 
a mountain on which they entrenched themselves, 
and there he rallied around him a crowd of fugitive 
slaves, foreigners and robbers. 

Spartacus disciplined them, and with their aid, 
cut in pieces three Roman armies. Terror reigned 
in the capital of the universe, and it would have 



120 The Peoples Aik. 

been all over with that empire of monsters, if, of 
so many millions of slaves that filled Rome and 
the neighboring provinces, some thousands had 
thought of seconding the victor. But not one 
moved. Spartacus, surrounded by a chosen army 
under Licinius Crassus, fought desperately, and fell 
with the last of his soldiers in the midst of the slain. 

With him ended the so-called Servile Wars, in 
the year Jl before the coming of Him, who, by 
His divine doctrine, by His life, and His death of a 
slave, could alone enfranchise men, by saying to 
the slave: "Be subject to thy master, but more so 
to God;" and to the master: "Acknowledge in 
thy slave a brother, created as thyself to the image 
of God. Treat him as thou thyself wouldst be 
treated; otherwise, on the great day of justice, the 
Lord of lords will crown thy slave, and deliver 
thee to the eternal torturers." 

I believe I have answered Mr. Mayor's question. 

MAYOR. 

Yes, sir; I now understand the reason of the 
conduct of those slaves, and see that in order to 
make them men, it was necessary, above all, to 
make them Christians. 

To free them, before giving them enlightenment 
and virtue, would have been to let loose tigers 
on tigers. The most frightful massacres would 
only have ended in replacing the ancient masters 
by others still more covetous and inhuman. But 
there occurs to me another thought on this sub- 
ject, a question after the manner of Gros-Jean, 
who preaches to his cure. 



Ninth Entertainment 121 

It is this: Why do not those charged to give us 
religious instruction sometimes make known to us 
the condition from which Christianity has drawn us? 

Some historical details, such as you are now 
giving us, would have a better effect, I think, than 
other proofs of religion, which we cannot so well 
understand. 

We can understand, to a certain degree, the 
ardent faith and devotedness of the martyrs, when 
we see the state of the society under which they 
had to live. 

We, also, with a better knowledge of what we 
owe to religion, would be more docile to its pre- 
cepts, more wary of its enemies. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

You are very right, sir. The best means to 
make religion known and loved, is to give its 
history. We appreciate its value, only by seeing 
w T hat it has done for us ; we understand what it 
has done only by knowing the state of the world 
in which it had to labor. Many of our clergymen 
in their instructions employ the historical method, 
and draw great fruit from it. That it is not 
employed by all, is due, in a great measure, to 
the style of their education. 

You must know, my friends, that, for a long 
time, our colleges have been too much occupied 
with the Greeks and Romans. Both one and the 
other have left books of poetry, philosophy, and 
history written with marvellous talent. Those 
nations did great things, but their writers have 
made them seem much greater. To flatter their 
11 



122 The Peoples Ark. 

nation, they have extenuated the evil and exagge- 
rated the good. Those books are placed in the 
hands of our students, and for eight or ten years 
they are made to spell, translate and learn them 
by heart, with more care than the words of the 
Catechism and Gospel. Lest they might be scan- 
dalized, we only present to them the fairer side 
of things. Those heroes, those sages of Greece 
and Rome, the least vicious of whom would, 
with us, have deserved a prison, are made to 
appear as veritable models of social virtue and 
magnanimity of soul. Hence our young men 
are seized with admiration and love of the ancient 
republics, which they know about as well as we 
do the inhabitants of the moon. Christians by 
baptism, they are pagans in mind, memory, and 
imagination, and, but too often, in heart. 

Well, in seminaries there is so much to be 
taught to young aspirants, that the false ideas 
they have imbibed in college regarding pagan 
history cannot always be rectified. You must 
not, then, be surprised that among young clergy- 
men a few may be found, who, instead of exhibit- 
ing religion to you in the full light of history, 
speak of metaphysics, or in beautiful phrases, after 
the style of the Greeks and Romans. 

This, my friends, ought to make you feel the 
necessity for reform in the manner of teaching, 
and should show you the great importance of the 
contest now being waged, throughout the world, 
between the Catholic Church and her devoted 
children on the one side, who are claiming the 
liberty of raising Christians, and the free-thinkers 



Ninth Entertainment. 123 

and their dupes on the other, who wish to raise, 
in the name of the state, beings who will adore 
only riches and pleasures. It would be well, as 
you see, to know whether they wish to recon- 
struct over the shoulders of the people, that beau- 
tiful society of monsters which has been over- 
thrown by the religion of Jesus Christ. But 
enough for the moment on this question, of which 
we shall speak elsewhere. Let us finish the 
picture of pagan society. 

We know to what a depth of brutality and 
misery the immense majority of men had fallen. 
Let us now see if their masters, who, enjoying 
the earth as the gods did their heaven, were ego- 
tistical tyrants, knew at least how to respect the 
rights of humanity. 

In the family, the law acknowledged only one 
man, the head. Absolute master of his wife and 
children, he possessed over them the rights of life 
and death. 

The murder or abandonment of children they 
did not wish to raise, was something so clearly 
allowed by their moral code, that even the greatest 
minds saw in it nothing w r orthy of correction. 
See what we read in the Politics of Aristotle, 
called the Prince of Philosophers, and who was 
the preceptor of Alexander the Great; " If custom 
did not permit infanticide, it would be necessary 
to determine the number of marriages, and how 
many children are to be raised, etc."* 

In the Republic of Sparta, of which Mr. Teacher 

* On Polities^ Book ii., c. 16. 



124 The Peoples Ark. 

spoke to us in the last entertainment, the new-born 
child was laid at the feet of the public magistrate; 
if its appearance gave evidence of a strong consti- 
tution, he stooped to raise it, and it was preserved ; 
if otherwise, he turned away his cy^s, and it was 
cast aside as rubbish. 

Romulus, the first king of Rome, being in want 
of soldiers, commanded fathers to- raise all their 
male children except those deformed; as to his 
daughters, he was allowed to rid himself of the 
youngest Later, a law was made to save from 
death all children free from deformity, but his- 
torians tell us that custom was stronger than the 
law, and that the destruction of children only 
increased with other vices, 

Finally, it is proved that this horrible custom is 
still common in all countries in which the true 
religion does not consecrate the lives of children 
by baptism, and cause to be respected the words 
of Jesus Christ : " Despise not one of these little 
ones: for I say to you that their angels in heaven 
always see the face of my Father."* 

As to women, they were everywhere more or 
less abandoned to the brutality of men. Among 
the nations of northern Europe a man did not 
marry a woman, but bought her; she could be sold 
or exchanged. At her husband's death she was 
obliged to follow him to the tomb. In Rome, 
where they were not so badly treated, the mother 
of the family was only a" household chattel, which, 
at the death of her husband, passed under the 
power of the eldest son. 

* Matth. xviii. 10. 



Ninth Eiitertainment. 125 

When, later, they relaxed in this severity, they 
had reason to repent of it. Profligacy became so 
fearful, that marriages ceased, and those contracted 
through interest remained sterile. Augustus, the 
first emperor, seeing the empire in danger of being 
depopulated, made laws after laws to obtain mar- 
riages and children. But with a corrupt nation, 
laws are like a plaster applied to a dead body. 
The masters of the world, knowing nothing but how 
to destroy men, and prevent their being born, 
would have perished in blood and impurity, had 
not Christianity appeared to create a new morality, 
and regenerate the family by means of woman. 

Banished from the family, where, then, was 
liberty? It was occupied in keeping alive the fire 
of dissension between two classes of persons, the 
one, the patricians; the other, the plebeians. They 
formed the Right and Left of those times, whose 
only anxiety was to know who should govern, that 
is to say, who should devour the provinces. 

After some contests more or less stormy, which 
lasted as long as the republic, and ended in fright- 
ful civil wars, the patricians and plebeians took 
refuge under the government of one man called 
emperor. And what was the government of those 
pagan emperors which lasted for nearly three cen- 
turies and a half, from Augustus, who began to 
reign alone in the year 31 B. C, until Constantine 
the Great, who placed the cross on his standard in 
the year 312? It was what might be supposed 
among a people so demoralized. 

As the pagans acknowledged no moral law 
superior to the will of the sovereign, the good 
11* 



126 The Peoples Ark. 

pleasure of the latter was the supreme law of the 
state. Now the prince who is told that he can do 
all things, is very much exposed to the danger of 
becoming a monster. Not only have his passions 
no restraint, but his power is manifested by all the 
evil passions which assail him. This is what really 
happened. With the exception of a certain number 
of emperors, who, in a great measure, owed their 
reputation for greatness and virtue to the baseness 
and perversity of the others, pagan history is but 
one record of tyrants and monsters so execrable, 
that we can scarcely believe in so much crime and 
infamy. 

There have been tyrants and bad princes among 
Christian nations, but besides that the most wicked 
of them were lambs in comparison with the Roman 
tyrants, the public conscience has at least delivered 
them to execration ; and has boldly said to their 
successors, "Beware of doing as they have done!" 
It was not so with ancient Rome, which raised to 
the rank of the gods the most sanguinary of those 
monsters. 

If among them I cite only Nero, it is not because 
he was less cruel than Tiberius, less extravagant 
in his pride and cruelties than Caligula, less in- 
credibly dissolute than Heliogabalus; but it is 
because you have heard him spoken of as having 
first persecuted the Christians, and condemned to 
death the great apostles Peter and Paul. 

This monster, after having caused his mother 
to be murdered at a party in the country, went 
afterwards to insult her body; on his return, he 
was received with great honor by the people and 



Ninth Entertainment. 127 

magistrates, who congratulated him for having 
freed himself from that wicked woman. 

Wishing to give himself the spectacle of a 
conflagration, he caused the four corners of 
Rome to be set on fire. The fire lasted for nine 
days, and consumed ten of the richest quarters 
of Rome. 

As he found that his play had been carried too 
far, and that the patricians and plebeians were 
beginning to murmur, he threw the blame of it 
all on the Christians. No one believed him ; but 
so many Christians were put to death, and with 
such a wonderful variety of torments, that Nero 
quickly recovered the good graces of the people. 
Besides other inventions, the pagan Tacitus relates, 
that he caused Christians to be covered with pitch, 
bound to posts or crosses placed at certain dis- 
tances in his gardens, which were opened to the 
public. At nightfall, fire was applied to those 
living flambeaux, and Nero, surrounded by his 
courtiers, promenaded through the gardens, enjoy- 
ing the cries of the victims, and receiving the 
acclamations of the people. 

When an old Roman general had put an end 
to the reign of this miserable coward and ferocious 
beast, the good people of Rome could not believe 
that Nero was dead, and they for a long time 
flattered themselves with the hope of the reap- 
pearance of the prince who had given them so 
many feasts.* 

Behold, my friends, what had become of the 

* Historical Studies. T. i. 



128 The Peoples Ark. 

greatest nation of pagan antiquity! Not know- 
ing the law of Jesus Christ, which threatens the 
wicked sovereign with a judgment much more 
terrible than that of bad subjects, they were not at 
all surprised at seeing their emperors satisfy their 
most atrocious caprices; and as those crowned 
tigers resembled very much the gods of the empire, 
they became objects of worship. 

To whom do we owe the abolition of the 
degrading worship of those reigning tigers? To 
the greatest of all great men — to our martyred 
heroes. 

Yes, my friends, while the august magistrates, 
the great philosophers, poets, and writers of Rome 
and all the known world, were shamelessly ap- 
plauding the most infamous sovereigns of history, 
the Christians of every condition, their sons and 
daughters, ten or twelve years old, braved the 
fury of those monsters, and killed their despotism 
by gorging it with Christian blood. 

Their rulers said to them: " Adore the gods 
of the empire." They answered: "No; the 
gods of the empire are but devils, who degrade 
you in this life, only to torment you in the next. 
We adore only that God who has , made us to 
His own image and likeness, whose Son has 
deigned to become man, to die for us and deliver 
the world from the tyranny of your gods." 

They said to them: " Sacrifice to the genii of 
the empire, to the sacred image of the emperors." 
"No," answered they, "a thousand times, no! we 
sacrifice to God alone. We respect the emperor 
as holding his power from God, and vye pbey him 



Ninth Entertainment. 129 

when he commands according to right and justice, 
but we would rather die than recognize in him a 
being higher than a mortal man, subject as are we 
to the King of kings." 

Those principles of our liberty from having been 
so oft repeated, and so many having died to 
inculcate and defend them, became general, and 
Constantine the Great, in raising the standard of 
the cross, said to the world: "It is Jesus Christ 
who must reign; the emperor can be only the 
first subject of the Gospel." 




TENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Answer to an objection of the progressionists — Keflections 
on the work of the propagation of the faith — a glance 
at the social progress of the chinese, hindoos, and turks. 

FTER having shown you, my friends, the 
beautiful social system constructed by ancient 
paganism, it will be well to say a word about 
the contemporary nations who live under the 
empire of false gods. It will be the best answer 
to an objection common enough for you to have 
some knowledge of it. 

The free-thinkers, who wish to make us believe 
that men sprang out of the earth, tell us, also, that 
all religions have emanated from the brain of man. 
Obliged to acknowledge that Christianity is su- 
perior to all the pagan systems, behold the beautiful 
explanation they give of it. 

The law of progress, say they, by which man, 
who probably was at first no more than a plant 
or an oyster, has been raised by successive trans- 
formations to the condition of a terrestrial animal, 
standing on two feet, served by two hands, and 
endowed with intelligence; this same lav/ has 
ordained, that the human mind in improving itself, 
should also be elevated from the gross and childish 
imaginations of paganism, to the more spiritual, 
130 



Tenth Entertainment. 131 

noble, and moral ideas of the Gospel. But man 
must not stop half-way. The law of progress, 
which makes him aspire to give himself a body 
less feeble, less subject to sickness and death, and 
a mind more enlightened, more free from the dark- 
ness of ignorance, leads him, also, to seek for a 
higher religion, and it is only Catholics who are 
stupid enough to believe that their religion is 
perfect. 

You see, my friends, that those persons explain 
a great folly by one still greater. Will it be 
necessary for me to refute each in detail, and 
according to my method, by facts rather than by 
reasoning? On this point, I ask Mr. Teacher's 
advice, begging him to tell me if the idle tales 
of the philosophy of progress have found any 
believers amongst us. 

TEACHER. 

I do not think, sir, that those extravagances are 
in greater credit in the country districts than are 
the absurdities of atheism with which they are 
mixed up. A runaway from college may tell his 
idle tales to those idiots, who philosophize in 
taverns, amidst the fumes of wine and tobacco, 
and he will be applauded. 

"A fool always finds a greater fool to admire 
him." Let those idlers, both great and small, 
who see in our cities only the work of man and 
his progress in the arts, fancy it is the same in the 
works of nature, and that the stem of a plant, or 
the shell of an oyster could have been the first 
cradle of humanity; this has been already believed. 



132 The Peoples Ark. 

I have known, by their books, some famous acade- 
micians of the close of the last century and the 
beginning of this, who, not having sufficient faith 
to believe that we came from the hand of God 
through Adam and Eve, found enough to sustain 
seriously, the theory that we might, very likely, 
have come from a plant or a fish, and have passed 
through the state of our great-great-grandfather, 
the pig, and our grandfather, the orang-outang. 

This sublime philosophy would only raise a 
laugh among our country people. Although 
ignorant of Greek and Latin, they, at least, know 
that the cabbage remains always a cabbage, and 
that although it may be very easy for a man, even 
an academician, to think and live like a beast, 
it is impossible for a beast to think and live like 
a man. 

We might long search in nature for the law of 
universal progress ; it exists only in the brain of 
the ignorant. 

We find that animals, and all kinds of alimentary 
produce deteriorate, if we do not aid, sustain, and 
improve them by our labor. 

Our natural organization, far from becoming 
perfected, is being degraded and enfeebled, since 
we make an idol of our bodies. We renounce 
religion only to fall into the bestialities of atheism, 
and make our social duties give place to the stu- 
pidities of the sect of the communists. 

In fine, if free-thinking philosophy makes us 
progress, it is by leading us downwards to a depth 
of barbarity such as has never been seen. 

But I must hasten, sir so as not to retard what 



Tenth Entertainment. 133 

you are going to tell us of modern infidel nations. 
It is a subject less unknown to your auditors, 
many of whom, I dare say, read the " Annals of 
the Propagation of the Faith," and consequently 
have a better knowledge of the moral and social 
state of the modern than of the ancient pagans. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

I am delighted, sir, with what you tell me, and 
understand the great facility with which religious 
truths are grasped here, now that I know I have 
the honor of speaking to an apostolic people. This 
is in reality, the glorious title due to the mem- 
bers of the Association for the Propagation of the 
Faith. In aiding our missionaries with their alms, 
they have a share in the labors and the crown 
of those messengers of heaven, and benefactors of 
the human race. He who promises nothing hut 
what he can perform, has said : "Whosoever re- 
ceives the prophet as a prophet, (and comes to 
his help,) shall receive the reward of a prophet."* 

At present, much is said of universal fraternity, 
but how shall we establish this fraternity, and 
make the barbarians believe in it, if our mission- 
aries do not teach them that men are children 
of the same God, the fruit of the same mother, 
redeemed by the blood of the Man-God ? We 
speak of liberty, equality and progress, but what 
power will those words have over the idolaters 
of Asia, Africa and Oceanica, so long as no 
priest shall have said to those blind and para- 

* Matth. x. 41. 

' 12 



134 The Peoples Ark. 

lyzed nations, " In the name of Jesus Christ, open 
your eyes; arise and walk"? 

In the midst of the infernal intrigues which are 
drifting the vessel of Europe on the rock of death, 
the work of the Propagation of the Faith has 
been given us as the last anchor of our salvation. 
France, to whom was given this sublime inspi- 
ration, owes to it, I am convinced, the prodigies 
of mercy by which she has been preserved for 
many years. 

Catholics of every nation, whether we be tepid 
or fervent, let us all then rally to this divine 
work of universal redemption, and poor though 
we may be, let us not regret the offering of one 
cent a week, and a short prayer every day for 
the salvation of seven hundred millions of our 
brethren. 

Honest laborers and workmen, you, who find 
it burdensome to contribute fifty-two cents in the 
year, go one time less to the tavern; yourselves 
and your families will be the better for it, and 
on that day when even the saints will be in fear 
and trembling, you shall find great consolation. 
It is written that " Charity covereth a multitude 
of sins/'* and is it not the charity of charities to 
cooperate in the spiritual and temporal salvation 
of so many souls ? 

After these few words of recommendation, which 
I owed to this, the Catholic work, par excellence, 
and to the desire I have of seeing you all asso- 
ciated to it, let us say something, my friends, 

* St. Peter, I. Epist. iv. 8. 



Tenth Entertainment. 135 

of modern pagans, and the grand progress they 
have made in religion and social amelioration. 

Since many among you read the Annals of the 
Propagation of the Faith, which are, as far as I 
know, the most curious and interesting of the pub- 
lications of the press, they can tell you in what a 
state of brutishness, disgusting corruption and ex- 
treme misery, our missionaries found, about thirty 
years ago, the islanders of Oceanica, otherwise 
endowed with much intelligence, and for the 
greater part, living on the richest soil in the world. 
They can also tell you the fondness of those chil- 
dren of nature and reason for what they call the 
food of the gods, that is, human flesh roasted in 
an oven, or eaten whilst still bleeding. This fond- 
ness was such that, before the arrival of the mis- 
sionaries, it was not a rare thing for the husband 
to put his wife into the oven, in order to regale 
his friends. Not more than sixty years have 
elapsed since the king of the islands of Wallis and 
Futuna, now inhabited by angelic Christians, had 
on his table as many as fourteen human bodies, 
some roasted, others alive, so that each guest 
might suit his taste. You are horrified, and so am 
I, but that ought not to prevent us from recogniz- 
ing in that monster a real free-thinking sensualist. 

As I do not wish to be accused of seeking my 
proofs either too far or too low, let us leave the 
anthropophagi of Oceanica, and cast a glance 
over two of the most ancient and well cultivated 
nations of Asia, the Chinese and the Hindoos. 
I have already spoken of their religious ideas; 
let us now speak of their social state. 



136 The Peoples Ark. 

In China, men do not eat human flesh, but it 
is customary for parents to throw their little chil- 
dren to the dogs and swine which fill the streets 
of the cities. The Jesuit missionaries in Pekin 
wrote in the last century, that in less than three 
years they had counted nine thousand seven 
hundred and two children thus exposed in the 
streets of the capital. This account was thought 
too strong, as Voltaire, then the Gospel of France, 
affirmed that the Chinese, whom he had never 
seen, were much more civilized and humane than 
the Christians of Europe. But another philoso- 
pher, an English traveller, in a work entitled, 
" Philosophic Researches among the Chinese," 
has affirmed that the Jesuits, far from saying too 
much, have rather said too little. He holds 
that, counting those children smothered after 
birth in a basin of warm water; those thrown 
into rivers, with an empty gourd tied to them ; 
those taken every morning in rubbish carts to be 
thrown into the common sewers; those devoured 
during the night by dogs and swine; those 
crushed beneath the feet of horses and mules, 
thrown into the canals, etc., etc.; it would be no 
exaggeration to estimate the whole number of 
infanticides as high as thirty thousand a year in 
Pekin. The accounts of our present missionaries 
but too well confirm the fact, that in China, as 
elsewhere, the capital gives the tone to the 
provinces. 

Observe that those innumerable victims are 
nearly all boys ; as for the girls, the Chinese, who 
value gold more highly than life, make great 



Tenth Entertainment. 137 

profit on them from the Turks, who buy them to 
fill their seraglios. 

It was such horrors as those which inspired a 
French bishop, Mgr. Forbin de Janson, to found 
for the ransom of pagan children in China, and 
other idolatrous countries, the Society of the 
Holy Childhood; that touching association, com- 
posed of our children from their earliest infancy 
up to the time of their First Communion, the 
contribution to which is only one cent a month. 
Many of you, my friends, might have your chil- 
dren enrolled therein, and I think that twelve 
cents a year laid up in the bank of Catholic 
charity, would be an excellent speculation for 
time and eternity. 

Such, then, is Chinese domestic society. As 
to civil and political society, it is composed of 
three classes ; first, the Son of Heaven, the 
emperor, an idol shut up in his palace, having 
all power, yet knowing nothing, doing nothing: 
secondly, of an infinity of higher or lower man- 
darins, both civil and military, incomparable in the 
art of selling justice, and squandering the revenues 
of the state and private individuals: thirdly, of a 
people obliged to suffer and bear everything, a 
people unrivalled in dishonesty, and swarming 
with usurers who lend at three thousand per 
hundred. 

Here is one fact which will give you an idea 
of the Son of Heaven, and the army of mur- 
derers and plunderers to whom he confides the 
government of three hundred millions of men. 

The Chinese religion obliges the emperor to 
12* 



138 The Peoples Ark. 

go every twelve years to offer sacrifices to the 
Sons of Heaven, his ancestors, whose bones repose 
in a city of Tartary. 

For the pilgrimage, there must be a new road 
each time ad hoc ; for you understand, my friends, 
that the Son of Heaven could not, without lower- 
ing his dignity, travel on a road beaten by the 
children of Earth. The road must be so well 
constructed and so carefully guarded, that no 
Chinese, no Tartar or any other, can sully his 
Imperial Majesty by a glance; — a crime, which, 
although committed inadvertently, is always pun- 
ished with death. 

The emperor deigns to defray the cost of this 
road himself, and assigns for it a sum of thirty 
millions from the public treasury. This the man- 
darins divide among themselves ; they make the 
people do the work, which they pay for in blows 
of the bamboo. 

Do you wish to have an idea of the forces of 
that China, which ought to be the most powerful 
of empires, since it is five times more populous 
than the greatest of ours? Well, listen; in 1840 
the Son of Heaven, wishing to prevent the Eng- 
lish from selling poison (opium) to his subjects, 
placed himself on a great war-footing. The Eng- 
lish government dispatched a small squadron carry- 
ing some troops. From the very first encounter, 
it was evident to the Chinese themselves that a 
few battalions of red-coats were well able to reduce 
Pekin, and to imprison the Son of Heaven in the 
very midst of his millions of soldiers. They has- 
tened to come to terms. 



Tenth Entertainment. 139 

"In 1848/' wrote recently a Chinese missionary, 
"a small English brig of eight guns, manned by 
at most forty marines, blockaded for a month the 
imperial port of Chang-Hay, where there were four 
thousand Chinese Junks, manned by upwards of 
forty thousand sailors. Those braves dared not 
move either hand or foot until the day when 
the English captain, having received satisfaction, 
deigned to weigh anchor." 

Let us pass into India, another immense theatre 
of cruel robbery and spoliation in those who 
govern, of oppression and butchery of the feeble 
in the family. 

I have already spoken to you of the beautiful 
fraternity which reigns between the castes, and 
between the four castes on one side, and the 
pariahs accursed by their religion on the other. 
That religion absolutely forbids the killing of a 
serpent, a fly, or a flea, and makes the killing of 
a cow as irremissible a sin as the murder of a 
Brahmin ; yet it requires that the woman, created 
solely for the service of man, who is her god, 
should suffer herself to be burned alive on the 
funeral-pile of her husband ; it not only advises 
parents to rid themselves of those children born on 
certain unlucky days, but, in certain provinces, 
allows those little creatures to be fattened, that 
with their flesh and blood the earth may be fer- 
tilized, and that by those sacrifices they may draw 
down the benedictions of heaven.* 



* History of Domestic Society among every Nation. By 
Abbe Gaume. T. II. Part 3 c. 8. 



140 The Peoples Ark. 

What is the political power of those populations, 
equally abominable for the licentiousness and 
cruelty of their manners. 

Here is a proof of it. For a long time, the 
society of English merchants called the India Com- 
pany, exercised absolute sovereignty over nearly a 
hundred million of Hindoos, and when that im- 
mense troop showed the least sign of resistance, 
a few English regiments were able to reduce them 
to submission. 

Let us finish our review of infidel nations by 
a word on the Turks. The believers in Mahomet 
are certainly better than the Chinese or Hindoos. 
Why? Because their false prophet has borrowed 
greatly from Christianity, and even while disfigur- 
ing the true God and His law, has wished his 
followers to adore Him. Being less removed from 
religious truth, the only mother of social virtues, 
the Turks have some laudable customs, such as 
hospitality, a certain honesty in their dealings, 
respect for virtue in others, and gratitude for 
benefits. Our priests and religious, so often ill- 
treated in the West, are generally respected in 
Turkey and among the Mussulmans of Africa. 
Our Sisters of Charity, against whom the free- 
thinkers of Switzerland and Italy howl like fero- 
cious beasts, are venerated by the Turks of Con- 
stantinople and Smyrna, as angels descended from 
heaven for the alleviation of their sorrows and the 
instruction of their little daughters. 

But notwithstanding all this, the children of 
Mahomet are only despicable barbarians. They 
hold under lock and key, and reduce to the con- 



Tenth Entertainment. 141 

dition of animals, the fairest portion of the human 
race. 

In allowing fifteen or sixteen hundred women 
to one man, they make, it appears to me, fifteen 
hundred wretched women, for the pleasure of 
enervating and brutalizing a lascivious being, gifted 
with the title of Sultan, Vizir, Pasha, etc.* It is 
true that in order to console those unfortunates, 
thus deprived of a consort, they subject them to 
a certain treatment of which I need not speak 
to you. 

We are told that, setting aside the trifle of the 
brutishness of men and women, and the castration 
of eunuchs, the Turks are enemies to bloodshed. 
Yes, when they think it useless. But the late 
Sultan Mahmoud, in order to reduce his troops to 
subjection, did not hesitate to have twenty-two 
thousand janissaries thrown into the Bosphorus in 
one day; the pasha Mehemet AH acted in a like 
manner with his mamelukes; and we know that 
the pashas and other commanders of provinces 
are very ready to ply the bastinado and the 
cimetar on him who is suspected of hiding his 
gold. 

Mahmoud, however, had abolished the ancient 
custom of putting to death all the male descen- 
dants in a collateral line, of the reigning house, but 
it was reestablished by his son, Abdul-Medjid, the 
most humane of the Sultans. His sister, married 
to Halil-Pacha, having had the misfortune to give 

* The late Sultan Mahmoud, celebrated as a great lover of 
reform and enlightenment, left, at his death, 1600 widows in 
his seraglio. 



142 The Peoples Ark. 

birth to a male child in 1843, he caused it to be 
strangled within forty-eight hours, which reduced 
the unhappy mother to such a state that she died 
two months after. 

Yes, my friends, the Turks are Turks; they also 
live under the laws of nature and reason. 

What shall we conclude, my friends, from this 
review of infidel nations, whether ancient or 
modern ? We must first conclude that Chris- 
tianity is the only law, religious or social, that 
prevents men from becoming worse than the 
beasts, from preying on one another here below, 
and from going to prey on one another elsewhere. 

Again, we must conclude that the only progress 
to be expected from nations whose reason has 
not been enlightened, whose nature has not been 
reformed by the Gospel, consists in this: instead 
of spitting men by thousands in the temples and 
in princes' kitchens, as they did in Mexico and 
Oceanica, those nations will find a more scientific 
manner of disposing of mankind. 

They will do as in Greece, Rome, China, India, 
and among the Turks ; they will shed less blood 
in honor of idols, but the sovereigns and great 
ones will set themselves up as gods, and will 
devour the people with insatiable avarice and 
cruelty. 

To provide for the pleasure of a few thousand 
slothful and lascivious monsters, they will con- 
demn to seclusion, to infamy and sterility, some 
millions of women ; they will cast to dogs and 
swine the fruit of lubricity; they will deliver the 
poor laborer and workman to the incessant out- 



Tenth Entertainment. 143 

rages, to the cruel deeds of a band of robbers, 
licensed by the prince. 

Such, my friends, is the only civilization possible 
to nations, which have not, as we, the happiness 
of living under the Christian law, alone capable 
of civilizing men, because it teaches them to res- 
pect and cherish one another as children of the 
same Father who is in heaven. 

It seems to me that Mr. Mayor has a question 
to propose. 

MAYOR. 

Only this, sir: — Why has not God made the 
Christian law known to all nations, I would not 
wish to raise doubts as to the goodness of God, 
but in thinking of so many of our fellow-men 
who live in ignorance of the true religion, I am 
tempted to say, " Either Christianity is not as 
necessary to salvation as we are told, or our 
priests exaggerate in speaking of the great desire 
which God has for the salvation of all men." We 
are told that this is a profound mystery, and I 
can well understand that everything in the works 
of God cannot be explained ; but without destroy- 
ing the mystery, could not some good reasons 
be given to aid us in believing it, and enable us 
to refute many objections, particularly this : 

If the Christian religion is the only true one, 
the human race is lost. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

In the following entertainment, sir, I will try 
to do what you desire. In giving you an his- 
torical sketch of the Christian religion from its 



144 



The People s Ark. 



origin to our day, I hope to prove that God has 
neglected nothing to give the knowledge of His 
law to all nations, and that if it still remains 
unknown to a great number, it is not God who 
is to blame. 



QBi£ 




ELEVENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Revolution operated by Christianity — What we should 
have to think of europe if jesus christ were not 
God — Silliness of the objections against the Christian 
faith. 

F the history of the Old Testament shows 
us God's solicitude for the salvation of all 
nations, it also clearly proves that the success 
of the enterprise required other hands than 
those employed up to that time. This is why 
St. Paul says to us : " God, after having, formerly, 
spoken to our fathers by the prophets, at different 
times, and in divers manners, has ended by send- 
ing us His Son."* 

The Word-Creator, by whom everything was 
made, became a foetus in the womb of the Blessed 
Virgin ! the Infinite Majesty, before whom millions 
of suns distributed through space are but dark- 
ness, concealed Himself under the appearance of 
an infant in the crib, in the workshop of Nazareth, 
in the tortures of Calvary ! Behold here, most 
certainly, a fearful mystery! Those who were 
first charged to make it believed by the world, 
felt so deeply the difficulty of the undertaking, 

* Heb. i. I. 
13 US 



146 The Peoples Ark. 

that they loudly declared this doctrine would 
seem to the pagans a folly ; to the Jews, a scandal 
and a blasphemy* Nevertheless, the folly of a 
Crucified God, after having been combated with 
incredible fury by all the powers of the world, has 
ended in triumphing over the most potent nations 
of the universe, and in its causes and effects, this 
triumph bears no resemblance to that of other 
religions. 

In fact, my friends, after what I have told you in 
the preceding entertainments regarding the pagan 
religions, whether ancient or modern, you can 
easily see whence they came, how they have been 
established, and what they have done. Produced 
by the passions which are in the hearts of all men, 
they have had no obstacles to overcome in order to 
reign over them, and have in no way deranged the 
course of human affairs. 

Who were the gods and goddesses of the ancient 
Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, etc. ? The same 
as are now the deities of the idolaters of Asia, 
Africa and Oceanica. They were under different 
names, some heroes and heroines, princes and 
princesses, whose history they had placed in the 
heavens, and who, not content with their frolics on 
high, came down, from time to time, to make 
merry here, at the expense of their votaries. 

What did they exact of those votaries ? Many 
sacrifices; some inhuman, others ridiculous ; divers 
hymns and feasts, for the most part licentious. 
How could that be refused to such beneficent 

* 1 Cor. i. 23. 



Eleventh Entertainment 147 

divinities? Could the lords and citizens of Greece 
and Italy very well cavil against this homage to 
Jupiter, in whom they beheld reflected their pride, 
despotism, adulteries, and unnatural disorders? 
Was the worship of the spiteful Juno and the 
shameless Venus, disgusting to the ladies of those 
times and their daughters? What good luck to 
usurers and rogues of every kind, to have Mercury, 
the god of thieves! Could the jovial Bacchus, the 
god of wine, and old Silenus, his preceptor, always 
intoxicated, be disagreeable to the lovers of the 
juice of the grape ? 

It is true that those deities so benign, showed 
a desire to prey upon men, and that in some of 
them, this desire was insatiable. But were men so 
precious a thing, when, even among the freest 
nations, every citizen had at least nineteen slaves, 
with whose flesh he might, if he so willed, feed 
the fish in his pond, and no one could say any- 
thing against it? And again, have we not seen, 
my friends, that everywhere among the pagans, 
the strong preyed upon the weak, and that the 
Romans, among others, thirsted for human blood 
in the shows of the amphitheatre ? The gods, 
therefore, in human sacrifices exacted nothing but 
what was customary in public and private morals. 

To ask, then, how the world had become pagan 
and remained such, is to ask how men became 
vicious ; adorers of their evil passions, and how 
they can remain such. The answer is so plain, 
that the question seems foolish. 

But how have the pagans, the adorers of every 
vice — how have the greatest, the most famous 



148 The Peoples Ark. 

nations, become Christians and followers of a law 
that commands every virtue, and proscribes even 
the shadow of vice? How was it that the Euro- 
pean nations, the deepest reasoners, the most 
intelligent, the most turbulent, the most passionate 
for their independence, had generally accepted for 
fifteen centuries the faith in a God, who was born, 
and died like the last of men? How was it that 
those nations, so haughty, so intractable in matters 
of honor, made the gibbet of slaves the object of 
their adoration, the sign of all grandeur and glory, 
by wishing that the cross should shine in the 
emblems of sovereignty as in those of religion, on 
the breast of the brave as on that of the pontiff? 
How was it that the religion of the crucified God, 
far from being like other religions, content with 
some external tokens of homage, operated in 
thoughts, manners, institutions, laws, fine arts, in 
a word, in everything that constitutes the life of a 
people, the most radical transformation that has 
ever been known? How did it raise, ennoble, 
make sacred, that which men, guided by reason 
and nature, had everywhere oppressed, vilified and 
looked upon as nothing, that is, women, children, 
and the poor? How did it first ameliorate, then 
abolish, then make absolutely odious the fearful 
state of slavery, which, during so many centuries, 
had weighed so heavily on nineteen-twentieths of 
our species ? 

In fine, how is Europe, so changed in everything 
else, and in which, during the last three centuries, 
the genius of heresy and rationalism has made 
such prodigious efforts to ridicule and abolish 



Eleventh Entertainment. 149 

Christianity; how is it still so profoundly Christian, 
that the errors which inundate it can be preached 
successfully only under the cloak of the gospel, 
and in that name always so imposing, the name 
of Christ? 

The pagan world become Christian! Behold, my 
friends, the mystery of mysteries for those who 
reject the mystery of a God made man. 

The establishment and reign of Mahometanism 
in apart of Asia and Africa can be easily explained, 
for its apostles said to the pagans and Christians 
of conquered countries: Believe in the prophet, 
and take as many wives as you please ; if this be 
not according to your taste, you shall die ! But 
who can explain the establishment, not only in 
Europe, but over all parts of the globe, in the midst 
of infidels, of a religion which has continually said: 
In the name of the Crucified, crucify your flesh 
with all its concupiscences, and if you have not 
courage to live like Christ and His most cherished 
disciples, take, at least, only one wife, and remain 
indissolubly united to her, as is Christ to his 
Church. 

What are the armies who have imposed this 
religion on Europe, and still impose it on so many 
Christians of barbarous nations, who profess it at 
the expense of all their temporal interests ? They 
are armies of lambs, who, after the example of their 
Divine Master, only extend their necks to the 
persecutor, who says to them: Reject those absurd 
dreams, or die ! 

Every sensible man is obliged to say : Either the 
Christian nations, which are incontestably the most 
13* 



150 The Peoples Ark. 

enlightened in the universe, have been struck 
with incurable folly during fifteen or sixteen cen- 
turies, or they have received the most evident, 
crushing, and irresistible proof that Jesus Christ 
is God. 

That sensualist, who since leaving college has 
read only romances, with some books of law and 
medicine, has conversed only with actresses and 
dancers, may very well be allowed to say, Chris- 
tianity is as much a superstition as any other. 

When one is encrusted with ignorance and 
absorbed in the gratification of his appetites, he can 
indifferently believe or doubt everything. But to 
the man who has somewhat seriously studied 
history, Christianity shows the God-Saviour as 
evidently as the order of nature gives evidence of 
a God-Creator and Conservator. 

Among many great geniuses who have thus 
judged of Christianity, I shall cite only the latest 
in point of time, because he is known to you all, 
and because he was not the most devout of men ; 
I mean Napoleon I. 

That man, who loved and appreciated the Catho- 
lic religion so much as to wish its solemn reestab- 
lishment, despite the few thousands of free-thinkers 
who said: We are the thought of France!- that 
man who afterwards so deeply afflicted and hu- 
miliated the Church in the person of her Chief, for 
which the Founder of the Church afflicted and 
humbled him in his turn, and placed him under 
the guardianship of an infamous jailer ; that man, 
I say, when at Saint Helena, loved to read the 
New Testament and to speak of religion. 



Eleventh Entertainment.. 151 

General Bertrand, that model of bravery, loyalty, 
and chivalrous devotedness, but somewhat im- 
pressed with his revolutionary education, acted 
the part of an unbeliever, and said one day to the 
emperor: " I cannot conceive, sire, how a great 
man like you can believe that the Supreme Being 
has shown Himself to men under a human form, 
with a body, face, mouth, eyes, everything in fine, 
like ourselves. I grant that Jesus may be all that 
you could desire, the most comprehensive intelli- 
gence, the most moral mind, the most profound, 
and, above all, the most singular legislator that 
has ever existed ; but he is a simple man, like 
Orpheus, Confucius, Brahma, &c, who has taught 
some disciples, and seduced credulous persons. 
If he has revolutionized the world, I see in that 
only the power of his genius, and the action of a 
great soul which overcame the world by his intelli- 
gence, as so many conquerors, Alexander, Caesar, 
yourself, sire, and Mahomet, have done by the 
sword." 

Napoleon replied : " Bertrand, I know men, and 
I tell you that Jesus is not a mere man." 

Then, in a discourse too extended and too long 
for me to quote or abridge it, he passed in review 
all the gods and demi-gods of paganism, all the 
great geniuses and conquerors of history, and 
comparing their doctrines, works and conquests, 
with the doctrine, works and conquests of Jesus, 
still subsisting and ever increasing, the emperor 
concluded by saying to Bertrand, who remained 
silent, judging, with reason, that reply w 7 as impos- 
sible: "If you do not know that Jesus Christ is 



152 The Peoples Ark. 

God — well, I have done wrong in making you 
general."* 

This was to give him to understand that he was 
wanting in common sense. 

As ignorance and want of reflection are infinitely 
more common than knowledge and genius, we 
must not be surprised, my friends, that the mystery 
of a God made man and dying on a cross for the 
salvation of all, has given rise to a multitude of 
objections. 

That I may not lose time in refuting sophisms 
unknown to you, I beg you, gentlemen, to point 
out to me those which are current in the country. 

MAYOR. 

Here, sir, as you may think, we are not very 
well skilled in metaphysics. When a college 
scapegrace comes to ask us the why and the where- 
fore of the mystery of the Incarnation, etc., we 
willingly answer : " Would you pretend to know 
as much and more than God? If He has made 
man and united the soul to the body, why could 
He not have become man Himself, and have united 
His nature to ours? You wish us to explain this? 
Explain to us, then, how the cherry grows at the 
extremity of a piece of wood. Nevertheless, you 
swallow the cherry ; well, we also, through our faith 
in God and our mother the Church, accept the mys- 
teries, and our reason receives no injury thereby." 
If the fop replies : " That savors strongly of the 

* We find the above conversation at the end of the first 
volume of the Solution of Great Problems, Note C, 



Eleventh Entertainment. 153 

sacristy," we answer : " Yes, just as your questions 
seem to come from accursed places." 

That the descent of the Most High among men 
should be a folly to the proud egotists, whose only 
concern is to exalt themselves, and who occupy 
themselves with the people only to make them the 
footstool of their ambition, may well be believed ; 
but it is far otherwise with men of good heart and 
mind, who feel that greatness is never so great as 
when it lowers itself to raise the feeble and the 
lowly, and say to them : " Come to me, all you 
who are under the burden of affliction and misery, 
and I will comfort you." It is not, then, the stable 
of Bethlehem, so consoling to the poor; it is not 
the laborious and painful life in Nazareth, so re- 
freshing for the heart of the laborer and workman, 
which surprises and scandalizes us ; it is the fright- 
ful end of that life so worthy of the God of Charity; 
it is the sea of humiliations, of outrages, of fearful 
sorrows which we see between the prayer in the 
garden : My Father, if it be possible, remove this 
chalice ! and that other word : All is consum- 
mated ! As for me, I cannot understand the ex- 
treme severity of the Father. 

We are told that a satisfaction was required for 
the crime of the terrestrial paradise, and the torrent 
of sin which followed it. Yes; but are we not 
also told, and without exaggeration, I think, that 
one tear of the Man- God, one drop of the blood 
shed at His circumcision, would have sufficed? 
And then, could not that God, so good as to give 
us His Son, and substitute Him for the guilty, have 
abated still more the claims of His justice? 



154 The Peoples Ark. 

We are told that we were under the power of 
the demon, and that it was necessary to redeem 
us. Very well, but could not the robber have 
been paid with a kick, instead of doing him the 
honor of treating w r ith him, so to say, as power 
with power. 

It was necessary, we are told, to overthrow the 
idols and enlighten men. Without doubt; but, 
could not God or His angels have in one moment 
reduced every idol into dust? and after that, St. 
Bartholomew of the false gods ? and the arrival of 
the apostles, with the gospel in one hand, and the 
miraculous power in the other, it is probable that 
Christianity would have made more rapid progress. 

These, sir, are some of the things which are 
said when we wish to philosophize on religion. 
This does not amount to unbelief, but it creates 
doubts, and if faith be shaken, Satan has full play. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir ; and that faith may not falter, it must 
be supported on the Credo of those thousands of 
millions of Catholics, who for eighteen hundred 
years have sung, still sing, and will sing for ages, 
in the face of all unbelievers: " I believe in our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. . . . who t assum- 
ing flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the 
operation of the Holy Ghost, became man, was cruci- 
fied for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate and was 
buried. — And when reason wishes to carp at this 
fact, the best attested of any under the sun, it must 
be turned back to the mystery of the cherry, pro- 
duced at the end of a twig. 



Eleventh Entertainment. 155 

It is not, my friends, that I do not feel able 
to overcome all those doubts and difficulties, but 
before I answer, I wish to make you observe this: 
Our Christian dogmas not being metaphysical 
ideas, but facts, which occupy a more conspicuous 
place in the history of the world than does Mont 
Blanc among the Alps, it would be absurd to 
make our faith depend upon the answer to the 
objections raised against those dogmas. The 
more they raise difficulties against our belief, the 
more do they prove God's intervention in its 
establishment. When I find myself face to face 
with those strong minds, who know their Voltaire 
and Rousseau by heart, I allow them to display 
their fripperies, and I frequently seem to " set 
greater value on their objections, so % as to deceive 
them sometimes, and draw upon myself singular 
eulogies; then I say: Yes, gentlemen, Christianity 
is incredible ; and if it is incredible for us, from 
whom it demands only the sacrifice of our vices, 
it must have been much more so for those first 
generations, from whom it exacted the sacrifice 
of everything that we hold most dear — liberty, 
goods, and life. Nevertheless, it is believed, and 
believed so strongly, that millions and millions 
of men, of all countries and conditions, have given 
testimony to it with their blood. Let us agree, 
then, that if it be still incredible, it is so only 
for cowards and the ignorant. 

We would laugh at the simpleton who should 
allow himself to be deceived by this gasconade. 
"Are you aware, sir, that it has been discovered 
that Mont Blanc is only a fable invented by the 



156 



The Peoples Ark. 



inhabitants of Chamouni."* Well, that simpleton 
would be less ridiculous than he who allows him- 
self to be shaken by such foolish sayings as this : 
" Catholicism has been invented by the priests." 
In fact, if the giant among the mountains of 
Europe has a multitude of believers and wit- 
nesses ; if it has wrapped within the folds of its 
icy mantle some scores of martyrs to curiosity, the 
Catholic religion counts its believers by thousands 
of millions, and there is no year in history, no 
country in the world, however unimportant, in 
which she cannot show the blood of some of her 
innumerable martyrs. 

The direct reply to the grave objections or 
questions of Mr. Mayor, requires some develop- 
ments; let us refer them to the next entertain- 
ment. 

* Valley of Savoy, serving as an avenue to Mont Blanc. 




TWELFTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Necessity for the lessor of Calvary — Immensity of its 

kesults. 

HE difficulties proposed by Mr. Mayor are 
these: Why the frightful butchery of Calvary? 
Was it then necessary to determine God to 
pardon men, or to obtain from Satan the 
relinquishment of his rights over sinners ? Had 
not the divine power a means more prompt and 
efficacious to overthrow those false gods and idols 
which now, eighteen centuries after the sacrifice of 
the cross, reign over the greater part of the human 
race? 

These questions, my friends, comprise all that is 
most elevated in Christian philosophy; but thanks 
to the Divine Master, who has been pleased to 
reveal to simple souls, and to children, truths hidden 
from pedants, infatuated with their own reason,* I 
hope to solve them in a manner most decisive and 
intelligible to those among you who wish to listen 
with attentive ear. Let us begin. 

Does religion tell us that it was absolutely ne- 
cessary to offer blood, divine blood, to the Eternal 
Father to open His heart to mercy? No; for His 



* St. Matth. c. xi. 25. 

14 157 



158 The Peoples Ark. 

mercy is eternal as Himself, and the history of the 
ancient world proves that our sins had not ex- 
tinguished it. 

Does religion tell us that divine blood was due 
to Satan for the ransom of the souls he held in 
bondage? No; for had it been necessary to treat 
with that father of liars and thieves, he would not 
have failed to take the ransom, and hold his pri- 
soners. 

But religion, Christian philosophy, history, the 
knowledge of men, our conscience, the greatest 
common sense, all tell us, all prove to us, that 
nothing less than the frightful martyrdom of the 
Man-God could awaken our souls, sleeping in the 
mire, and determine us to come forth from the 
disorder and evil which make us enemies of God 
and slaves of Satan. 

Recall to your minds, my friends, these two 
principles of the Catholic catechism: first, God, 
who has created us without ourselves, will not save 
us without ourselves ; second, Satan proposes evil, 
but does not impose it on us, and no one is lost, 
but he who wishes it. 

What follows from this ? That in order to save 
us, Jesus Christ had not to vanquish the severity 
of the Heavenly Father, or the power of Satan, but 
that He acted thus to determine us to renounce 
Satan, his works and pomps, by leading a new life 
worthy of our quality of children of God, and heirs 
to the eternal kingdom of heaven. 

Now then, how could the Son of God, made man, 
determine Jews and pagans to enter into this new 
life? Was it only by preaching accompanied by 



Twelfth Entertainment. 159 

miracles? No; preaching and miracles lavished 
during forty centuries had not prevented men from 
falling, as they say, from fever into worse heat. 
During three years the Saviour employed those 
two means with incomparable splendor. Never has 
man spoken like him, exclaimed the multitude, 
everywhere so passionate for his discourses, that 
they even forgot the want of food. His miracles 
were so multiplied, so striking, that the people 
unanimously cried out: No prophet has ever done 
such great things ; this is the Messiah promised to 
our fathers ; this is the Christ. 

But what fruit did Jesus derive from so much 
labor, so many benefits, such unequalled popularity? 
His abandonment by His most devoted disciples in 
the hour of trial, and the cry of the people, Give 
ms Barabbas and crucify Jesus. 

Would our Saviour have succeeded better by 
joining to words and benefits the power of chas- 
tisement? Do you think, my friends, that a few 
thunderbolts on the heads of his enemies and 
opposers, would have drawn their minds and hearts 
to the lights and virtues of the Gospel ? No, 
evidently not. His enemies and opposers would 
have been more cunning, that is all. 

Chastisements, as you know, had not been 
wanting from the time of Adam to that of Jesus 
Christ. Was not that spectacle presented through- 
out the world, of a society of monsters adoring 
every vice, and devouring nineteen twentieths of 
the human race, in itself the most fearful of chas- 
tisements? Nevertheless, who thought of amend- 
ment? No one. The great men and sages of 



160 The Peoples Ark. 

paganism thought everything was right. The un- 
fortunate slaves, having no idea of a better ordei 
of things, remained peaceably in their degraded 
condition. 

In Judea, where the true God was known and 
exclusively adored, the most influential classes, the 
Scribes and the Pharisees, had corrupted by their 
customs and traditions the purity of the divine law, 
as our Saviour reproached them with. Whited 
sepulchres without, but full of corruption within, 
those hypocrites decorated their houses and gar- 
ments with sentences of Scripture, while their 
hearts were the sanctuaries of satanical pride and 
egotism, of unbridled envy and avarice. 

Let us understand well, that for a chastisement 
to be salutary, and turn the sinner from evil, the 
sinner must have knowledge of the evil. And 
that the sinner may know evil, he must be taught 
to know good, for evil is only opposition to good. 
Now, to know good, it is indispensable to know 
God, the eternal and immutable Good, the only 
Source of life and of all good. 

Fathers and mothers, how do you induce your 
children to do good and avoid evil? You say to 
them, Do this; Almighty God commands it; if you 
obey, He will bless you in this life, and receive 
you one day into His eternal kingdom: — Avoid 
that, for God forbids it; woe to you if you do it! 

Well, my friends, such was the lesson to be given 
to the whole race of men. They had lost the 
knowledge of good and evil, and that science of 
sciences could be taught them only by the ever- 
fearful, yet sovereignly-consoling lesson of Calvary. 



Twelfth Entertainment. 161 

There alone shines that truth of truths, outside 
which there is no salvation for either nations or 
individuals. 

God is infinitely good, and He so loved men, even 
when they were wicked, that He sent than His only 
Son to teach them His law, and aid them in deliver- 
ing themselves from evil ; but, for the very reason 
that He is infinitely good, He has an infinite horror 
for evil, and for those who persist in the evil He lias 
forbidden ; this horror of iniquity is so great that His 
well-beloved Son, having deigned to cliarge Himself 
with our prevarications, was bruised like a worm of 
the earth. 

Such, my friends, was the order, the command- 
ment decreed, from the very beginning, in the 
counsels of Infinite Charity and Sanctity, and 
which the Son had to accomplish. 

Such was the baptism of blood, as He Himself 
called it, by which He was to purify souls and 
inspire them with a horror for sin. Such was the 
ceremony of His coronation as Head and King of 
regenerated humanity; He could be recognized 
and obeyed only by placing Himself on the throne 
of the cross, as He said to the Jews : When you 
shall have raised the Son of man, you will then know 
that I am sent by God. , . . When I shall be raised 
from the earth, I shall draw all men after me ; and 
lest we might think that in this He alluded to His 
ascension, the Evangelist tells us that He spoke of 
the kind of death He was to undergo.* 

Facts prove that this means has been the most 

* St. John, c. vii. 28; c. xii. 32, 33. 
14* 



1 62 The Peoples Ark. 

efficacious in triumphing over the obstinate corrup- 
tion of men. 

The cross, empurpled with the divine Blood, in 
less than half a century overran the whole Roman 
Empire, and extended beyond its boundaries ; the 
most abominable manners were succeeded by 
divine virtues. Everywhere, at the appearance of 
the cross, woman was exalted, and with her, the 
family also. The life of the child and the slave 
became sacred. St. Paul, by making a bishop of 
a fugitive slave and thief,* abolished slavery in the 
minds of the Christians, who afterwards confided, 
without scruple, the highest dignities of the priest- 
hood to those whom the pagans called a second 
species of men. 

We see the great lords kneeling at the feet of 
their slaves and saying to them : Bless me, father, 
and aid me to make my peace with God. 

Greeks, Romans, Jews, all barbarians whatso- 
ever, who had hated and preyed upon one another, 
became as brethren, prayed one for another, sent 
apostles and material succors from one end of 
the world to the other ; and knew how, when 
necessary, to expose themselves for men whom 
they had never seen. 

To the free-thinker who laughs at the miracles 
of the apostles, to him who repeats that verse of 
Voltaire, as impious as absurd, " God visited the 
world and changed it not," I say: You do not 
believe in the miracles of the apostles, because 



* S. Gnesimns, who is the subject of the admirable Epistle 
of St. Paul to Philemon. 



Twelfth Entertainment. 163 

you have not seen them; all well and good; you 
seem to me to be like those men whose reason 
is all in their eyes, and who would be beasts 
if they had been born blind. But there is a 
miracle which you must see, unless you be in 
perfect ignorance of history. 

Who was cultivating Europe and exercising in 
it all the mechanical arts, about eighteen hundred 
years ago ? One hundred and fifty millions of 
slaves, wholly brutalized and absolutely delivered 
over in body and soul to the discretion of less 
than ten millions of citizens. Instead of that 
ignoble crowd, what do we now see ? Two hun- 
dred millions of free men, the greater number 
having more or less property, entire masters of 
their person, their labor; all well enough instructed 
in religious philosophy, so that the villager's child 
knows more of God, of man and the world, than 
did the greatest geniuses of paganism ; all are so 
great in the eyes of justice, that no one can be 
deprived of his goods, liberty, or life, unless in 
virtue of a legal judgment. 

Travel over our great cities, above all, over 
that which, after having been the capital of the 
pagan world, has become the centre of the Chris- 
tian world. Behold, yet standing, the immense 
amphitheatre of the Coliseum, built by the em- 
perors Vespasian and Titus. Whom do you see 
there ? Pontiffs, princes, citizens, peasants, poor 
servants, mendicants, assembled together in prayer 
at the foot of the cross, in the same place, where, 
under the least inhuman of the emperors, lions, 
tigers, and panthers tore in pieces, day by day, 



1 64 The Peoples Ark. 

thousands of our fellow-beings, to amuse one hun- 
dred thousand citizens. 

What are those immense and sumptuous edifices 
which you behold erected everywhere in place of 
the amphitheatres and circuses raised by Roman 
ferocity? They are hospital, hospices, asylums 
for the poor, the sick, and the indigent, in which 
Christian charity welcomes and serves with reve- 
rence those same poor unfortunates whom the 
magistrates and great men of paganism put on old 
ships, that they might be drowned, or cast them 
on desert islands. 

And who are those women so assiduous in 
attending day and night by the bedside of so many 
disgusting patients, and in joyfully rendering them 
those services so revolting to our delicacy? They 
are daughters of the God of Charity, who have 
come, some from a palace, others from a cabin, in 
virtue of the words : Love one another as L have 
loved you, in giving my life for the last among you. 

Behold, I will say to the free-thinker, in those 
Europeans learning from the Gospel to cherish, to 
devote themselves for one another, as they had 
learned from nature to hate, to devour one another, 
behold the miracle of Jesus Christ and His apostles 
still subsisting. And if this prater reply : I see in 
that only the natural progress of the human mind ; 
I will say : Go, then, simpleton, study the natural 
progress of the human mind among the Tartars, 
Chinese, Hindoos and African negroes. 

Yes, my friends, I repeat it; nothing but the 
sovereignly fearful, yet sovereignly touching lesson 
of Calvary, could have revolutionized the ancient 



Twelfth Entertainment. 165 

world and torn it from the worship of the most 
degrading, the most inhuman vices. 

God certainly gave to the words of the apostles 
a power over souls which He had never given in 
the same degree to those of the ancient prophets, 
but that their words might convert men, it was 
necessary then as now, as ever, that men should 
will it, and will it resolutely. Now, what was it 
that determined the pagans to break with the 
immemorial worship of the false gods, and those 
sovereignly dissolute morals ? It was the faith in 
a God crucified by and for our iniquities. It was 
meditation on the words of the Saviour to the 
women of Jerusalem, weeping over His fate : Weep 
not for me, but for yourselves and your children. . . . 
for if the green wood is thus treated \ what shall it be 
with the dry?* What inspired those neophytes with 
the strength to shed their blood so generously, for 
Jesus Christ? It was the blood of Jesus Christ, 
borne to them by the priests and deacons even in 
their prisons. 

Well, it is the same to-day. Who is the young 
man determined to live in labor, sobriety, chastity, 
and the practice of every Christian virtue ? He 
alone who nourishes his faith in the crucified God, 
and frequents those places where he receives the 
word and the bread of life. Whence comes it that 
so many of our youth reassume pagan manners? 
It is because they leave the Church for the tavern, 
the cafe and the club. They listen no longer to 
the God of Charity, they do not eat His flesh, and 

St. Luke, c. xxiii. 28. 31. 



1 66 The Peoples Ark. 

this is why they hearken so willingly to the revo- 
lutionists who preach the hatred of the rich and 
the necessity of preying upon them. 

What we see in individuals, in families, w T e per- 
ceive also in great nations. What are the idola- 
trous and barbarous nations which renounce their 
absurd superstitions and ferocious manners ? 
Those in whose bosom our intrepid missionaries 
have planted the cross, and preached the God who 
died for the salvation of all. 

Let an army of professors, artists, officials, and 
artisans, raised and sent by the state to carry our 
sciences, arts, and all the baggage of our civili- 
zation, save the catechism, among a brutalized 
people ; let them say afterwards that they have 
made them a civilized people, gentle and humane; 
I would as soon believe them if they were to say, 
Mont Blanc has cast off its mantle of ice, and from 
foot to summit is but one forest of fig-trees and 
orange-trees. 

You see, now, my friends, that the free and 
moral regeneration of men rendered indispensable 
the frightful immolation of the Saviour God. 

We shall see, in the following entertainment, 
why the effects of that great sacrifice have been 
neither so prompt nor so universal as they should 
have been, to use the expression of Mr. Mayor. 




THIRTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Why the world has not been long since converted by a 
sudden stroke of policy— b, aridity and, universality of 
apostolic teaching — reasons for the infidelity of so 
many nations. 

T is asked, Why God, wishing to abolish idols, 
did not, on some fine morning, reduce them 
to dust by a miraculous stroke? 

I will first observe to you, my friends, that 
the evil lay not in the idols. This is so true, that 
our popes have expended immense sums of money 
to disinter the gods of paganism and preserve 
them in the palace of the Vatican, where, in fact, 
is to be found the most magnificent collection of 
gods and goddesses that has ever been seen. 
Far from suspecting the popes of idolatry, all 
lovers of the fine arts and of religion, have ap- 
plauded the excellent idea of ranging around the 
tombs of the apostles the army of gods van- 
quished by the cross, as the prisoners and flags 
taken from the enemy serve to decorate the tri- 
umphal chariot of the conqueror. 

Idolatry reigned in their minds and hearts; to 
dethrone it, it was necessary to convert those minds 
and hearts ; for this conversion their own consent 
was needed, which required some delay. 

167 



1 68 The Peoples Ark. 

And that the pagans might will their conversion, 
it was necessary that the disciples of Jesus Christ 
should teach them the law which converts souls. 
This again required delay. 

You will say: Could not Jesus Christ have 
employed legions of angels for the instruction 
and conversion of the world ? — Yes, but if He 
has not done so, far from complaining, we ought 
to thank Him. Besides, by that He would have 
reversed the natural order and constrained human 
liberty, and the result would have been less glo- 
rious for humanity. 

Everything by man and for man; such is the 
law which God prescribed to Himself in the work 
of the redemption. As I have elsewhere observed, 
the human family having been delivered to the 
enemy by the treason of the first man and woman, 
was it not a great honor to have been delivered 
by the Son of a woman, at once true God and true 
man ? And is it not also a great honor to us, that 
the Liberator shoufd have confided the work of 
our regeneration, not to angels, but to an infinity 
of men of every country and condition ?* 

TEACHER. 

Allow me, sir, to make an observation. From 
what you have said, some of your hearers may 
conclude that the angels remain strangers to the 
work of our salvation, which would certainly be 
as little in accord with your thoughts, as with the 
teaching of the Church and so many passages 

* Eeveil du Peiqjle. Lesson vii. 



Thirteenth Entertainment 169 

of Scripture, which prove the solicitude of the 
angels for the salvation of men. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

1 thank you, sir, for calling for an explanation 
necessary for some, useful for all. 

Yes, certainly, the good angels employ them- 
selves most actively for our salvation. Jesus 
Christ shows them to us as watching lovingly 
over the souls of little children, and St. Paul calls 
them ministering Spirits, sent to the help of tliose 
who shall receive the inheritance of salvation* The 
chief of the evil spirits having greatly contributed 
to our perdition, it was worthy the divine charity 
to make the faithful angels concur to our deliver- 
ance. 

To every human soul that enters on its career 
of trial, in which it is exposed to the seductions 
of enemies visible and invisible, God has, then, 
given an invisible friend to be its helper and 
guardian; and you should understand, my friends, 
that from this association in the combat is formed, 
between the angels and men, the link of love and 
fraternity which will unite them eternally in the 
bosom of the Eternal Father. 

But the ministry of the good angels is, like the 
war we wage with the demons, invisible. To souls 
vested with a body and receiving lively impres- 
sions by the senses, visible angels, that is, priests, 
were necessary. It is, in fact, to these that Jesus 
Christ has exclusively confided two things neces- 

* St. Matth. c. xviii. 10.— Ileb. c. i. 14 

15 



170 The Peoples Ark. 

sary to the life of souls : first, the preaching of 
the Word, without which the human soul remains 
in its darkness, and the power of its angel guar- 
dian is, in part, restrained ; second, the admin- 
istration of the sacraments necessary for the 
regeneration of the soul, and the support and 
development of the true life. 

The angels have, then, great need of the priest 
for the sanctification of the souls confided to them; 
and the priest, to second his ministry over souls, 
has great need to solicit the concurrence of their 
invisible guardians. 

The different offices of these two ministers of 
salvation appear plainly in the history of the con- 
version of the Ethiopian eunuch, related by St. 
Luke in the eighth chapter of the Acts of the 
Apostles. 

This eunuch, treasurer of Candace, queen of 
Ethiopia, had gone to Jerusalem to adore. A new 
proof of what I have told you in one of our 
entertainments, that, even in the midst of the 
general corruption, God could still count many 
true servants, and by consequence, apostles, in 
the most distant countries. His devotions being 
ended, the eunuch was returning, and reading, 
in his chariot, the words of the prophet Isaias, 
w r here he speaks of the death of the Saviour. 
He understood nothing of the passage, his quality 
of stranger, and his ignorance of the language 
of the country not permitting him to know what 
had happened in Jerusalem. 

The angel of the Lord said to the deacon 
Philip, who was evangelizing the city of Samaria 



Thirteenth Entertainment. 171 

with great success : "Arise, and go on the road 
from Jerusalem to Gaza. Being arrived there, he 
again said to him : Draw near the ehariot, and enter 
into conversation with this stranger. The eunuch 
invited the deacon to place himself by his side ; 
and the passage in Isaias furnished matter for a 
conversation which determined the Ethiopian to 
say, Here is water; why cannot I be baptized? 

If you believe with your whole heart, it can be 
done, replied the deacon. 

Yes, answered the other, I believe that Jesus 
Christ is the Son of God. They stopped near the 
fountain. Baptism was administered ; the eunuch, 
now become a Christian and an apostle, joyfully 
reascended the chariot ; and, by the power of the 
angel, Philip suddenly found himself in the city 
of Azotus. 

From that divine law which reserved the ad- 
ministration of the word and the sacraments to the 
apostles and the ministers chosen and delegated 
by them, there resulted, as we have said, a certain 
slowness in the propagation of the Gospel, In 
reality, it does not appear that the angela often 
had permission to transport the ministers of the 
Gospel from one place to another in the twinkling 
of an eye. 

We learn^ frGtn the Acts of the Apostles and 
their epistles, that, in their voyages, they were not 
well served, except in ill-treatment That you 
may be edified on this subject, listen to St Paul 
rendering account to th-e Christians of Corinth oi 
the emoluments and rights of his priestly office.. 

"From the Jews, five times did I receive forty 



172 7 he Peoples Ark. 

stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods ; 
once I was stoned ; thrice I suffered shipwreck ; 
a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea.* 
In journeys often, in perils of rivers, in perils of 
robbers, in peril from my own nation, in perils 
from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in 
the wilderness, in perils in the sea 7 in perils from 
false brethren. In labor and pain, in watchings 
often, in hunger and thirst, in many fastings, in 
cold and nakedness. Besides these torments with- 
out, add the continual solicitude of all the 
Churches."! 

He also had great reason to write to the same 
in his first letter : If in this life only we have hope 
in Christ, we are, of all men, the most miserable.^ 

Nevertheless, my friends, the labors of those 
intrepid envoys of the God of the cross were so 
prodigiously active, they were so well seconded 
by the bishops, priests, and deacons whom they 
established in every new church, and by the zeal 
of the faithful, become ardent catechists, that, only 
thirty years after our Lord's ascension, it was not 
possible to show a single province of the vast 
Roman empire in which Jesus Christ had not 
fervent adorers, and some ministers. 

The first persecution of Nero discovered an 
immense multitude in Rome, according to the re- 
lation of Tacitus and Suetonius ; and we learn from 
the apostle St. Paul, that he had a little church in 
the very court of the monstrous Caesar. 

* St. Paul alludes to the circumstances of his shipwreck 
near Malta, related in Acts xxvii. 

t II. Cor. xi. 24, 28. % I. Cor. xv. 19. 



Thirteenth Entertainment. 173 

All the saints salute you, writes he to the Philip- 
pians, and principally those of the house of Ccesar* 

Seeing the cross erected in such a high place, 
you can imagine, my friends, what advance it must 
have made elsewhere. 

The persecution only gave greater publicity to 
Christianity. The Christians of that time made 
greater account than we do of the words of the 
Master: I will deny before my Father him who will 
be ashamed of me before men. 

To the question: What are your name, profes- 
sion, etc.? they always replied : We are Christians, 
adorers of the true God, and our other qualities 
are of so little account that it is useless to speak of 
them. The defence of the accused was always a 
sermon, a process terrible against the false gods 
and their adorers; a trial which the martyr termi- 
nated by the irrefutable proof: I am so certain of 
what I say, that I will joyfully die for my religion. 

When a Christian trembled at the sight of the 
executioners, an individual would step forth from 
the crowd of spectators, and boldly say: Courage, 
my brother; the eternal crown is within your grasp, 
do not refuse it ! And he would go with him to 
receive that crown. 

I ask you, my friends, could debates so sharp 
and so extraordinary, which were soon opened 
throughout the empire, have allowed any one to 
remain in indifference ? It may then be said, that 
before the end of the first century, the light was 
so great in three-fourths of Europe and Africa, and 

* Philip, iv. 22, 
15* 



174 The Peoples Ark. 

half of Asia, that men of good will had the means 
of being instructed and arriving to the true faith. 

As to those regions not subject to Roman dom- 
ination, the history of their evangelization is less 
known to us. St. Philip and St. Andrew carried 
the faith among the Scythians and in upper Asia; 
St. Thomas evangelized the Parthians, and it is 
believed that he penetrated into India, and there 
received the crown of martyrdom. It appears 
certain that St. Bartholomew labored there with 
equal success, since, towards the end of the second 
century, St. Pantsenus of Alexandria, having been 
called thither by the Christians of the country, 
found a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew in the 
Hebrew tongue, which had been left there by this 
apostle. St. Matthias preached in Ethiopia, St. 
Jude in Arabia and Idumea. 

Did China, then, receive the good-tidings? We 
can neither affirm, nor deny it. That which is 
proved by a most curious and authentic monu- 
ment, discovered in the ancient capital of China 
in 1625, and placed by order of the government 
in a temple of idols, is that the Christian religion 
was extremely flourishing there, and had become, 
it seems, the religion of the empire during the 
sixth and seventh centuries.* 

Was America peopled in the first centuries of 
our era, and was the gospel carried thither? We 
do not know. Some monuments disinterred in 



* See on the monument of Siganfou, Annals of Christian 
Philosophy, T. xii. — Universal History of the Catholic Church. 
By M. Rohrbacher, T. x. 



Thirteenth Entertainment 175 

Mexico, would appear to demonstrate that Chris- 
tianity had been preached there at least one hun- 
dred years before the entrance of the Spaniards.* 

In the profound ignorance in which we are 
regarding the ancient history of America and some 
other parts of the universe, what shall we con- 
clude, my friends? That if we are not permitted 
to show what God did for the conversion of those 
nations, we are none the less forbidden to say 
that He did nothing. From his conduct towards 
the Romans and their subjects, who comprised 
nearly half the human race, and were the most 
corrupt, we have every reason to believe that 
He did not neglect other nations. 

What shall we conclude regarding those nations 
that are, and have been for centuries, in the dark- 
ness of idolatry? That some, for instance, the 
inhabitants of India, resisted the evangelical sum- 
mons, and succeeded in destroying the first bands 
of Christians established in their midst; that others, 
as the Chinese and Tartars, after having joyfully 
received the seed of faith, and tasted of its fruits, 
did as the Prince of the apostles tells us : They 
returned, like the dog, to their vomit; and like 
the unclean animal, they returned to their ancient 
filth.f 

Why did God permit their resistance or apos- 
tasy? Because He would not save them without 
themselves ; because He wished to make heaven 
a chosen society of grand and generous souls, and 
not a collection of automata and machines. 

* Annals Christ. Phik T. xii. xiv. f II. Pet. ii. 22. 



176 The Peoples Ark 

That those nations might become or remain 
Christian, the beautiful law, Everything by man, 
required two things; first, that those nations 
should wish to embrace the Christian religion, 
and preserve it, after having received it ; second, 
that other Christian nations should be willing 
to concur to the propagation and maintenance of 
the faith among their brethren, still pagan, or as 
yet feeble and unsteady in the Christian life. One 
of those conditions, or rather both of them, not 
having been fulfilled, it naturally results that many 
nations remain yet immersed in a sea of vice and 
blood, to show to Christian nations from what 
an abyss of moral and material misery the gospel 
has drawn them, to accuse their indifference and 
ingratitude, and to say to them : Go, then, to the 
help of your brethren; do for them what has 
been done for you, and forget not that the whole 
law of Jesus Christ is comprised in the precept, 
Love one another as I have loved yon. 

MAYOR. 

My question, Why has Christianity remained 
unknown to so many nations? — has procured 
explanations so new to us, and so interesting 
regarding the conduct of God towards the human 
race, that before abandoning it, I beg you, sir, to 
allow me to say another word. 

That the divine goodness is perfectly justified in 
regard to the perverse and obstinate generations 
who reject the evangelical light, or stifle it after 
having received it, every one can understand, but 
is it the same with the unhappy generations that 



Thirteenth Entertainment. 177 

succeed them ? Have not they reason to com- 
plain, and to say like the jews: Our fathers sinned, 
they are no more ; and we bear their iniquities ?* 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir ; that complaint will be uttered on the 
great day of justice, by millions and millions of 
mouths ; but instead of rising to God as a reproach, 
it will fall like a shower of fire and sulphur on all 
those who, from Cain to Antichrist, shall have 
labored more or less knowingly in the persecution 
of Christianity and the extermination of souls. 

God's principle, To save men by men, has very 
great advantages, as we have seen ; but it has also 
this inconvenience, that men having to take part in 
it in this world, if they do not labor with God for 
the salvation of one another, they infallibly work 
with Satan for their own perdition and that of fheir 
brethren. Was this inconvenience such, that in 
order to avert it God was obliged to renounce 
the making of the human race a family whose 
members should be mutually interested in the 
good or evil of one another ? Instead of a society 
of brethren, should He have made us beings ab- 
solutely savage and isolated, entering into this life, 
going through it and leaving it without the help 
of any one, and consequently without any scandal ? 
As God did not do this, we may believe, my 
friends, that He had excellent reasons for it. 

Those reasons which we can already discern 
dimly by the aid of Christian common sense, will 

* Jer. Lam., v. 7. 



178 The Peoples Ark. 

appear to us in all their splendor, when, on the 
day of final judgment, the Sovereign Judge will 
settle the accounts of the human race and of every 
individual. As He will demand of every one only 
an account of the lights he has received, so He 
will punish in him only the evil denounced by his 
own conscience, and as the evil will be punished 
in just proportion to that knowledge; as no good, 
however little it may be, will be forgotten in the 
retribution, so there will be but one voice in all 
honest souls to say: Thou art just, O Lord, and 
thy mercy is still greater than thy justice! 

Meanwhile, my friends, let us leave the infidels 
for a moment, to occupy ourselves with what God 
has done for the children of the faith, and the 
more readily, because, that in working for us, God 
has willed to work for all, every true Christian 
having to be an apostle in some way. A glance, 
in the following entertainments, at the Constitu- 
tion of the Catholic Church, and at her trials, will 
enable us the better to comprehend how nations 
can cease to be Christian without any fault on 
God's part. 




FOURTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Theee successive forms of Christianity — Present form- 
Appreciation of two methods of propagandism. 

FTER the study which we have made of false 
religions and the abominable morals they 
everywhere introduced, I do not believe it 
necessary, my friends, to refute the absurd 
blasphemy of unbelievers : All religions are good y 
save that which presumes to condemn all This is 
the proposition of a fool or a demon. 

Religion being the law which God was neces- 
sarily obliged to give to men, to enlighten them 
on their destiny, and prevent them from becoming 
worse than the beasts, you understand that that 
religion must have alw r ays been like God, like the 
destiny of men. Immutable by its foundation, it 
had to adapt itself to the different ages of the 
human race and grow with its growth ; thus we 
see that God changed its form three times. 

In the patriarchal age, which embraces the first 
twenty centuries, and during which men knew 
only family life, religion was domestic, having for 
its ordinary ministers the heads of families, who 
were, at the same time, pontiffs and kings. I say 
its ordinary ministers, for the Scripture, in speak- 

179 



i8o The Peoples Ark. 

ing of Noah, shows us a succession of prophets 
whose ministry was public, and served as a bond 
to families each forming a little church.* 

From the year of the world 2000, families hav- 
ing gathered together into societies directed by 
public powers, elective or hereditary, religion 
became a public and social institution. 

We first see Abraham, the father of believers, 
rendering homage to Melchisedech, King of Salem 
and Pnest of the Most High God, in whom, St. 
Paul tells us, he saw the representative of Christ, 
the eternal King and Pontiff of humanity. f After- 
wards among the chosen people, religion became 
the soul of the state, with which it incorporated 
itself, which it animated and ruled by its laws and 
institutions. It had a priesthood to which holy 
functions were exclusively reserved; it traced in- 
violable limits to the civil power, of which the 
depositary, chosen by God and confirmed by the 
election of the people, could be only the minister 
of God to protect the good and repress evil, such as 
they were known by the law which prescribed 
only good, forbade only evil. J From the union 
of those two powers in their submission to God's 
latv, resulted the prosperity of the Jewish nation. 
From their dissensions and infidelities resulted ter- 
rible chastisements. In fine, that cry, Down with 
Jesns! crucify him, and let His blood be upon us and 
upon our children! produced the frightful national 
chastisement which still lasts. I beg you, my 
friends, to remark these things, which, according 

* II. Pet. ii. 5. f Hd). vii. % Rom. xiii. 4. 



Fourteenth Entertainment. 181 

to St. Paul, should serve us as an example, for 
they have been written for our instruction, for us 
who were to live in the latter age.* If God has 
so rigorously chastised the violation of the law 
given by Moses, and if He has not yet pardoned 
that nation which, in a moment of delirium, cru- 
cified the Man-God, what must not be expected 
by a Christian nation, which, after eighteen cen- 
turies of benefits, cries : Down with the religion of 
Jesus Christ? 

In fine, the Eternal Word, by whom all things 
were made, having deigned to descend among us 
to abolish the work of hell, to purify and conciliate 
by virtue of His word and His sacrifice, those men 
whom abominable religions had transformed into 
egotistical brutes, and enemies of their own blood; 
do you not understand, my friends, that that reli- 
gion, revealed from the beginning, should receive 
a form, an organization, more perfect and better 
adapted to the end of the universal redemption ? 
That Jesus Christ proposed to Himself the 
evangelization, not of one, nor of many, but of all 
nations without exception; that the end so openly 
proclaimed by Himself and the ancient prophets, 
of His descent among men, of His sufferings and 
death, was the conversion of the world ; that He 
had nothing so much at heart as the reunion of all 
the sheep, docile to His voice, in one fold, and 
under one Pastor, f is what cannot be contested, 
without having previously torn up the New Testa- 
ment, and a great part of the Old. Even were that 
divine will, to save all men of good will, by their 

* I. Cor. x. 11. t St. John x. 16. 



1 82 The Peoples Ark. 

submission to the law of the Son of God, not so 
clearly drawn up in the Gospel, it would be none 
the less eminently credible. In fact, I ask you, my 
friends, can one well conceive that the Creator and 
Father of all souls, annihilated Himself as St. Paul 
says, so far as to take the form of a slave, and suffer 
the death of the cross* without wishing to facilitate 
to all the knowledge and practice of the law, 
which alone can save both the soul and body, and 
make of all men a family of brethren? 

MAYOR. 

No, sir; a fact so strange as the incarnation and 
immolation of the Son of God, Himself God, can 
be explained and believed only in virtue of this 
reason: It was the only means to awake men 
sleeping in the darkness of error, and to open to 
all the way of salvation. This is precisely why in 
the present year of the Christian era, the work of 
universal conversion is so little advanced, that one 
sometimes asks: Is Christianity really the work 
of the omnipotent Father? You have very well 
refuted this objection by observing that God, who 
lias created us without ourselves, will not save us 
without ourselves, and that, instead of peopling 
heaven with automata and slaves, He will admit 
therein only those determined to enter by the way 
of the commandments. But there yet remains this 
question: With all respect to our liberty, could 
not Jesus Christ have employed more efficacious 
means to draw all men to the knowledge of His 
law? Because that from the earliest ages there 

* Philip, xx. 7. 



Fourteenth Entertainment 183 

have been and still are Christians in every clime, 
can it be said that the Gospel has been sufficiently 
announced to all nations? 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

It is precisely of the means of Christian propa- 
gandism from which the Divine Master might 
have chosen, that I wish to speak. 

God, persisting in His design, as ancient as 
the world, of enlightening and saving men by 
means of men, and wishing that they should 
engender each other according to the spirit, as 
they do according to the flesh, there were, it 
seems, but two possible methods of evangelical 
preaching; the Catholic and the Protestant. 

The Catholic method consisted in saying to 
some chosen men what the Saviour, when about 
to reascend to the right hand of the Father, said 
to His apostles : All power has been given to 
me in heaven and on earth. Go, then, teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you, and behold, I am with you all 
days even to the end of time. . . . All that you 
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and 
all that you shall loose on earth shall be loosed 
in heaven. ... As the Father hath sent me, I 
also send you. . . . Receive my Spirit ; whose sins 
you shall forgive, they are forgiven, and whose 
sins you shall retain, they are retained, etc., etc.* 

As the apostles could not live till the end of 

* St. Matth. xviii. 19, 20.— St. John xx. 21—23. 



1 84 The Peoples Ark. 

time, and as St. Peter and his colleagues in the 
apostolate were in the material impossibility of 
preaching to and baptizing all nations, the words 
of Jesus Christ evidently included, for His first 
envoys, the command to choose other ministers 
who should aid and succeed them in the great 
mission of envangelizing the universe, even to 
the end of time. 

We see that the apostles did this, and recom- 
mended it to all the bishops whom they estab- 
lished. This method was constantly followed 
during the first fifteen Christian centuries, and we 
do not find that the schismatical or heretical sects 
which have risen since that time, have invented 
any other means of propagating their errors, than 
by having them taught by the living voice of 
schismatical or heretical ministers, preaching in 
the name of Jesus Christ. 

In the sixteenth century, Luther, a German 
Augustine monk, a man of much genius and 
pretty jovial manners, seeing himself condemned 
by Pope Leo X. for theological errors, began 
to preach that the Papal Church had been for 
centuries under the government of the devil, and 
that the only means of reestablishing the religion 
of Jesus Christ was to invite every one to search 
the Bible. Salvation by faith in the pure word of 
Christ y contained in the Bible, and by hatred of the 
satanic church of papism; such was the method 
advanced by Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, and other 
partriarchs of Protestantism ; a method still fol- 
lowed by a crowd of their followers, who always 
imagine that by throwing millions of Bibles to 



Fourteenth Entertainment. 185 

the idolaters of popery and paganism, they shall 
lead all men to the knowledge of the religion 
of Jesus Christ. 

According to this method, the Saviour should 
have said to His envoys : I wish to employ you 
in the conversion of the world, but while serving 
me with your pen and your Jimbs, I intend that 
you shall save your tongue, and that the religious 
belief of men shall be only the result of their 
biblical reading and the inspirations of my grace. 
Instead, then, of preaching all that you have seen 
and heard, write it. To the forty and odd books 
of the Old Testament add twenty-seven more; 
this will make a good sized volume, containing 
from thirty-four to thirty-five thousand verses. 
Translate it into every language, into all the 
dialects of the universe. While waiting for the 
aid of the art of printing, which I will not send 
you for thirteen or fourteen centuries, procure 
enough of copyists to have very soon, seven or 
eight hundred millions Bibles. Make them into 
packages, procure means of transport, carriages, 
beasts of burden, or colporteurs, and go to distri- 
bute the word of salvation to all, from kings on 
their thrones to slaves in their cabins, and say 
to them : In the name of the true God, who has 
sent us, take this book and read it with extreme 
attention, for it contains the pure word of God, 
which will open to you the gates of eternal life. 
If any one ask you the contents of the book, 
be not so presumptuous as to constitute your- 
selves doctors of my law, answer them : The 
Spirit of God has reserved to Himself the care 
16* 



1 86 The Peoples Ark 

of teaching you ; read then with all confidence. 
But if, after having read the divine book, your 
neophytes believe they have need of your min- 
istry to baptize them, to give them the Blessed 
Eucharist or the like, do as they wish ; for it may 
be that some will see in my word the institution 
of the sacraments, and that others not seeing it, 
will believe they may be dispensed with. I desire 
that every one follow the religion which he will 
form for himself with the aid of the Bible. 

Behold, my friends, the Protestant method, not 
such as the pretended reformers employed in 
the churches of their fabrication, but such as they 
preached it to Catholics, such as their deluded 
followers still preach it. Do you think it better 
calculated than the Catholic method to Chris- 
tianize all nations ? What is your opinion, Mr. 
Mayor. 

MAYOR. 

I think, sir, that of all methods of conquering 
the world to the Christian faith, that of the travel- 
ling bookseller is really the most absurd that could 
be imagined. Had it been adopted by Jesus 
Christ, the result would have been, that either 
the nineteenth century would no longer remember 
Christianity, or would speak of it as an abortive 
folly. 

First, where would the poor fishermen of Naza- 
reth have found the time, men, and material 
resources necessary to compose in part, and to 
translate into three or four thousand dialects a 
book like the Bible ? That superhuman work 
achieved, where have found enough of copyists 



Fourteenth Entertainment. 187 

to procure a Bible, I do not say for every inhabi- 
tant of the globe, but at least for every family 
or village? 

Secondly: suppose that the angels of heaven, 
becoming translators, copyists, and colporteurs, 
had carried, according to the orders of the apostles, 
to all parts of the world, enormous bales of Chris- 
tianity in parchment, how should they have caused 
the Bible to be read by those two or three hundred 
millions of slaves who filled the Roman empire, 
among whom it is very probable that scarcely 
twenty thousand knew their letters. First of all, 
it would have been necessary to establish two or 
three millions of schools, and prevail on the 
masters to send their people — no very easy matter! 
As to the higher classes of that time, it would 
have been necessary to inspire them w 7 ith such a 
passion for religious truth, that they would consent 
to seek for it in an unknown book, presented by 
strange travellers who should say to them, We 
cannot precisely tell you in what consists the 
religion we are charged to offer you, but it is con- 
tained in this volume ; take and read ! 

In fine, to obtain from the inhabitants of the 
universe a serious reading of the Bible, it would 
be necessary to suppose them all very learned, 
very idle and very foolish. 

Thirdly : let us multiply miracles on miracles, 
and suppose that they determine all men, from 
the minister of state to the lost shepherd, to make 
the Bible, their daily food, what would be the 
result ? Does any one believe that those millions 
of minds so differently influenced, will read in the 



1 88 The People's Ark. 

thirty and some thousand verses of the Bible, the 
same truths to believe, the same duties to practise? 
To hope this, it would be necessary to find among 
so many Protestants, who, for three centuries, 
have been prating about the Bible, at least some 
hundreds who have agreed in their interpretation 
of it. Instead of hundreds, we need find only ten. 

To say that Christ has not proposed to Himself 
to give the same religion to all ; that He holds as 
good that which each one constructs for himself 
by means of some fragments of the Bible, is simply 
to say, The Son of God was made man and sub- 
mitted to the death of the cross, in order to make 
as many religions as there are men, and to divinize 
the saddest lollies which can find place in the 
mind of man. 

In a word, I do not believe, sir, that a single 
Protestant seriously believes in the conversion of 
the world by the reading of the Bible. The 
Biblical Propaganda is a weapon against the 
Catholic Church, that is all. 

PLATO PTOCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir; the idea of causing the Bible to be 
read and interpreted by the whole human race; 
the idea of conquering the world to the Christian 
faith by the ministry of colporteurs crying out 
everywhere, " Ladies and gentlemen, here are the 
religions of Christ, some in paper, others in boards ; 
I have forty of them ; take your choice ;" this idea 
is, I say, an extremely amusing absurdity; but as 
you have very truly remarked, it is a weapon against 
the Catholic Church. Now every machination 



Fourteenth Entertainment. 189 

against the Church, however absurd it may be, is 
received with transport by every sensualist, whether 
heretical, schismatical, or Catholic. This species 
was very general and very influential in the six- 
teenth century, when Luther began to cry out: 
Down with popery! Long live the Bible! No- 
thing but the Bible! 

The sensualist princes and their famished sub- 
jects saw in the Bible religion an excellent means 
of freeing themselves from the spiritual power, 
from confession, fasting, abstinence, and of seizing 
on the goods of the ecclesiastics and monks. The 
crowned robbers recognized in particular, the 
great advantage of making themselves popes in 
their states, and of regulating at will the religious 
affairs of their beloved subjects. 

It is true that some of the German people took 
rather to heart the beautiful evangelical liberty 
which the prophet Luther preached. Those good 
people said to themselves : If God has not given 
us magistrates and masters in the religious order, 
why has He given them in the civil order? Why 
should the Bible, destined to nourish our souls, 
belong to us, while the earth, which only sup- 
ports and nourishes our body, belongs to others ? 
Thereupon those excellent theologians began to 
cry: Long live the Bible! Nothing but the Bible! 
Death to the Pope, to the bishops, kings, dukes, 
and lords! They began to sack and burn Episcopal 
palaces, Catholic monasteries and Lutheran castles, 
massacring and burning their inhabitants. Seeing 
this, the Lutheran princes called on Luther to ex- 
communicate those of his flock whose only crime 



190 The Peoples Ark. 

was the having too well understood the new gospel 
Luther, terrified, launched against the peasants a 
bull such as no pope had ever published ; while 
condemning the insurgents to eternal flames, he 
promised heaven to those princes who should purge 
Germany of that cursed race. The crusade of the 
inconsistent Lutherans against the sincere and 
logical Lutherans took place in 1525, and in two 
encounters they killed one hundred thousand 
peasants. 

That expedition once terminated, the Protestant 
princes took the Bible under their high protection, 
and said to their people: The Bible tells you that 
the pope is Antichrist; that his church is the work 
of Satan; that the mass, confession, fasting, the 
vows of religion, the invocation of the saints, 
praying for the dead, etc., are papistical abomina- 
tions, and that Christ has given you no other 
masters, either spiritual or civil, than your princes ; 
this is absolutely certain. As to the rest of your 
beliefs and religious practices, it is for us to regu- 
late them, and we will cause to be hanged or 
broken on the wheel whoever shall meddle with 
the catechism which we shall give you. 

Behold what the male and female popes of 
Protestant countries have obtained without resist- 
ance from Luther's time to ours; and nevertheless 
their foolish flocks unceasingly vaunt their religious 
liberty, and foolishly laugh at our submission to 
the Church of jesus Christ. 

The extreme pride and covetousness of the 
great, the calculations of an infamous policy, such 
were, then, the reasons of the great success of 



Fourteenth Entertainment. 191 

the absurd idea that Christianity is wholly con- 
tained in the Bible, and that Christ ordained that 
every one should seek it therein. 

If this absurdity still finds so many partisans, 
even after having produced its infallible results, 
to wit, contempt of the Bible, contempt of all 
positive religion and communism, it must be attri- 
buted to the same causes. To sectarian pride and 
the hatred of Catholicity, which have given birth 
to the societies for biblical evangelization, are 
visibly united the spirit of industrial and political 
speculation. Can you not understand, my friends, 
that the forty or fifty millions annually collected 
by those societies from their dupes, are an excel- 
lent thing for the founders of those societies, 
for the translators and printers of the Bible, for 
paper-makers, etc., and particularly for those 
fops who go to disseminate those paper religions 
in all the quarters of the globe. Since many of 
you read the Annals of the Propagation of the 
Faith, you must know that the life of our poor 
missionaries in infidel countries is everything 
most afflicting to nature ; on the contrary, the 
Biblical missionaries are grand gentlemen, who 
live and travel very comfortably, surrounded by 
their family, and with the hope of amassing a 
fine fortune in a short time. 

As to the political interest which England finds 
in the biblical propaganda, it is no secret to 
any one. 

Wherever you see landed a pack of English 
Bibles and little anticatholic tracts, you may be 
sure that it is accompanied or followed by enor- 



T92 The Peoples Ark. 

mous bales of merchandise of every kind. It 
might even be wagered that the minister of the 
Bible-religion is a diplomatic agent, or at least 
the travelling agent of some commercial house, if 
he be not himself a manufacturer. You have 
doubtless heard of the exploits in Tahiti of the 
famous Pritchard, who filled at one and the same 
time the functions of officer in the biblical army, 
of apothecary, of physician and counsellor to 
Queen Pomare, and Britannic Consul. 

No one is ignorant of this, save, perhaps, the 
poor senseless Italians, whom we see laboring 
at present to decatholicize their beautiful land, 
to make it a drain of the biblical and industrial 
manufactures of London. 

As to apostolic colporteurs who come to offer 
to you the trite religion of Christ, and treatises 
filled with the grossest calumnies against the only 
divine Church, say to them very coolly : You come 
to us in the name of Christ, show us your commis- 
sion signed by Christ. You say that this book is 
divine ; and that it contains all the Christian 
religion; prove it by an immediate miracle; if not, 
we will regard you as scoundrels whose sole occu- 
pation is to spread contempt for our holy religion ! 

Enough for the present on the Protestant 
method. 

Let us pass to the Catholic one. 




FIFTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Catholic Method — Catholicism of Protestants — Reply to 

THEIE OBJECTIONS — THE AIM OF THEIR PRINCIPLE— NeCESSITT 
FOR AN INFALLIBLE POWER. 

S much as the idea of making of all men, even 
children of eight years, interpreters of the 
Bible and founders of religions, is absurd, 
impracticable, antichristian and immoral, so 
much is the Catholic method ©f religious instruc- 
tion conformable to good sense and the wants of 
our nature. This is so evident, my friends, that 
the proof would seem to be superfluous. 

How many minds are there sufficiently culti- 
vated, and enjoying all the leisure necessary to 
study assiduously the thirty and some thousand 
verses of the Bible, and able to flatter themselves 
that they have well understood it as a whole, and 
in detail ? I warrant you that among one hundred 
thousand there are scarcely ten. And those ten 
wise men would need many long years to settle, 
I do not say their convictions, but their opinions, 
on the basis of biblical doctrine. 

How many minds are there, on the contrary, 
who by the aid of the priest or a good catechist, 
can learn in a short time all those things necessary 



17 



19: 



194 The Peoples Ark. 

to be believed and practised, in order to think and 
live like good Christians? All can, with the 
exception of a few idiots condemned to remain in 
perpetual infancy. 

This mode of instruction is so natural, that 
Protestants as well as Catholics employ it in reli- 
gious as well as civil education. With every one 
and everywhere, with the book and long before 
the book, there has been a master or a mistress 
who prepared the child to read, and directed it 
in its reading. Those ardent biblicists, who have, 
for so long a time, set the world on fire with 
the cry: Long live the Bible, nothing but the 
Bible ! have always had r and have still, like our- 
selves, creeds of faith, catechisms, religious books, 
and ministers to preach and explain them. There 
are no parents, however careless of their children's 
education, who do not make themselves pope, 
bishop and pastor in their family. 

When we bring home to them this manifest 
fact of papism, they believe they can defend them- 
selves by saying : We help our children to under- 
stand the Bible, as we ourselves are helped by 
our ministers; but neither we nor our ministers 
have the temerity to constitute ourselves absolute 
masters of religious faith, as your priests do in 
saying : Believe this, and act in accordance, under 
pain of damnation ! 

We must answer them : Do not lie thus in 
the face of heaven and earth ! Which of you 
would dare to say to your children arrived at 
the age of reason : My children, I believe that 
I have seen in the Bible that it is a divine book, 



Fifteenth Entertainment. 195 

and that in it God commands children to be 
very good, submissive to their parents, affectionate 
towards all, to fly idleness, gluttony, lying, theft, 
disputes, impurity, etc.; however, as I am not 
infallible, do you yourselves read the Bible, and 
hold to whatever you find therein ? Which of 
you would think it well for a minister to use 
this language to your young people? You teach 
everything with the assurance of the priests and 
Catholic parents who speak in the name of the 
Church. 

Thus it is, that daily denying Protestantism, and 
usurping in matters of faith and morality the 
authority you refuse to the universal Church, you 
condemn yourself by your own judgment, accord- 
ing to the words of St. Paul speaking of heretics. 

Protestants say to us, with that parrot-like 
erudition which picks up one of the thirty-five 
thousand verses of the Bible, and pays not the 
least attention to the rest: "But is it not writ- 
ten that we shall be all taught of God?" Yes, 
I answer, we are all taught of God, as we are 
all created and preserved by Him. He employs 
the sacerdotal ministry to teach us His law, as 
He employs the ministry of our parents to pro* 
duce and care for us during our infancy, as 
He employs the ministry or multitudes of men 
to procure those things necessary for our pre- 
servation. In pretending that we have less need 
of masters to teach us religion, than to procure 
us the knowledge and other things necessary to 
our physical and social life, you outrage common 
sense and your own conscience, In reality, where 



196 The Peoples Ark. 

is the one among you, having any positive religion, 
who has not received it from some of his fellows? 
The difference between your believers and those 
of the Catholic Church, is, that you believe in a 
religious word, which, certainly, does not go far- 
ther back than the jovial prophets of the sixteenth 
century, while we believe in a teaching which 
most undoubtedly dates back to tfce Divine Master, 
who said to the first ministers of the Gospel : 
Go, teach all nations. Behold, I am with you all 
days, even to the consummation of the world. 

TEACHER. 

To this reasoning, which does not amuse them 
much, Protestants are accustomed to reply: In 
reading the Bible which contains the pure divine 
word, we enter into direct communication with 
God ; it is He who speaks to us, who teaches 
us; whereas Catholics, by admitting the priest 
between them and the Bible, hear man and are 
taught by him. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir; that is what they have continually re- 
peated during three centuries, and good sense has 
as continually replied: When you read and inter- 
pret the Bible, is it really God who speaks and 
explains His thoughts to you? Have you not 
every reason to fear that your ignorance, your 
prejudices, your evil passions, and the great master 
of lies, will interpose themselves between God and 
you ? In truth, Satan is very fond of the Bible, as 
we see in his tempting of the Saviour in the desert, 
and there are a thousand chances against one that 



Fifteenth Entertainment. 197 

the Bible religion is His. What most clearly proves 
that those causes of error act powerfully over your 
biblical studies, is your everlasting division on 
every subject. God has only one word, but you 
have ten thousand. 

And again, do you not perceive that between 
God and the Bible you hold in your hand, you are 
obliged to admit an infinity of men ? 

First: from the time of St. John, the last of the 
biblical authors, who died towards the close of the 
first century, up to that of the glorious Reformation 
begun in 1517, there is a space of fourteen hundred 
years. During all that time, to whom was confided 
the care of the Bible? To that accursed Popish 
Church, which, according to you, had corrupted 
everything. 

Behold then, forty generations of idolatrous 
papists, who interpose themselves between . the 
original Bible and that which you hold in your 
hands. How can you reconcile your faith in the 
integrity of the divine book, with your faith in the 
abominations of popery? 

Secondly : your Bible-religion rests entirely on 
the authority of those men who have said to you: 
It is certain that the authors of the New Testament 
have recorded all the teachings of Jesus Christ 
and His apostles. 

That Luther and Calvin, who affirmed this, 
should appear to you to be men of God, notwith- 
standing the gross slanders of history, is all well 
and good ; however, you must confess that they 
were men, and that it would have been well to 
demand from them a proof of an affirmation which 
17* 



198 The Peoples Ark. 

had every appearance of being a deception. By- 
accepting the affirmation without any proof, you 
and your fathers have made an act of human faith, 
which does honor to your credulity. 

Thirdly : you allow to be interposed between 
the evangelists and yourself, the translators and 
printers of the Bible, upon whose ability and probity 
necessarily rests your faith in the sense you attach 
to the divine word. 

Do you wish to reject all intervention of men 
between God and yourself? This, then, is what 
I would advise you to do : Dismiss all your min- 
isters, translators and printers ; cast into the fire 
all your Bibles and catechisms as so many human 
works ; call in question all that your parents and 
teachers have told you of Christianity; address 
yourself directly to the Supreme Being, whom 
your reason seems to perceive, and say : Eternal 
Father of all beings, I do not wish to believe in 
any one but in thee*, speaking to me in person. 
My fellow-creatures tell me that thou hast sent 
thy only Son on earth, under the name of Christ, 
and that He has given us thy law in a book called 
the Bible. If this be so, deign to procure me a 
Bible containing the pure expression of thy word ; 
and lest the spirit of error should mislead me in 
the reading of it, come thou thyself to explain it 
to me. 

Behold, my friends, to what every Protestant 
obliges himself by these two beautiful principles ; 
first, in religion one must listen only to God; 
second, religion is a thing to be regulated between 
God and the soul in private and without witness. 



Fifteenth Entertainment. 199 

Now I beg Mr. Teacher to tell us what those 
private religions are, and what would happen to 
society were they to be multiplied. 

TEACHER. 

It appears evident to me, sir, that those religions 
are always a passport to atheism or fanaticism. 
The man who pretends to regulate between him- 
self and God, his beliefs and his morality, is 
necessarily either a contemner of all religion, or a 
wicked simpleton who believes himself inspired. 
As for me, instead of losing time in refuting him, 
I would merely say : I have always believed, sir, 
that God has given only one religion to men, and 
the same to all ; I am delighted to learn that for 
you He has derogated from the general law, and 
honors you with particular conversations. Never- 
theless, as I am ignorant of what He may say to 
you, do not mind it, sir, if every time that we be 
alone I keep a defensive weapon at hand, in case 
your God should command you to kill me; for 
with all due respect to your Supreme Being and 
His favorites, I would rather kill one of his pro- 
phets than be killed by one. 

One should have to be very blind not to see, 
that the pretended right of every one to make 
a religion with the help of the Bible or of reason, 
would be the absolute destruction of all public 
and domestic society. A people truly Catholic, 
that is to say, well instructed in its religion, and 
faithful to its precepts, might really dispense with 
civil laws and material force ; while a people with- 
out religious faith, or divided into as many religions 



200 The Peoples Ark. 

as it has families or individuals, would be only 
a crowd of intractable savages, ever ready to 
murder one another. What would become of that 
family, truly protestant, in which all the children 
and servants, seeking in the Bible for their morality, 
would find in it the right to say to the father and 
mother: We do not see that God has commanded 
w r hat you command, or forbidden what you forbid ; 
we even have some reason to believe that He 
prescribes the contrary; we will, then, follow His 
voice arid that of our conscience : It is better to 
obey God than man. Every one can see that that 
family would be a hell. If Protestants have pre- 
served family life, it is only because they have 
remained Catholic in their family government, and 
also in the government of their religious society. 
But it is not the less true, that their antichristian 
and antisocial principles have produced, as you, 
sir, have proved, that contempt and hatred, unhap- 
pily too common, of all religion, of all power, of 
all right. If our separated brethren do not at 
last comprehend, in view of what is now transpir- 
ing and preparing, that their motto: To every one 
his own Christianity, is equivalent to No Chris- 
tianity ; and that the Bible given to all, is the 
earth abandoned to all; if they do not comprehend 
this, I say that the most savage communism 
is not the illegitimate, but the truly legitimate 
child of Protestantism, and that in continuing their 
impious war against true Christianity, they expose 
Europe to carnage ; to them we may well apply 
the words of La Fontaine, if we change but the 
first: 



Fifteenth Entertainment 201 

"Fanaticism, when thou dost seize us, we well 
may say, Wisdom, adieu. " 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

I thank you, sir, for having so well and so 
briefly demonstrated these two fundamental truths: 
There is no society possible without a public and 
general religion. No public and general religion is 
possible without a priesthood invested with sovereign, 
that is to say, infallible authority. At the words 
infallible authority, the whole flock of unbelievers 
begin to sneer, and believe they can overwhelm 
Catholics by saying : You must know, gentle- 
men, that God alone is infallible, and that to attri- 
bute such a prerogative to a man, or to a body of 
men, is to make a god, or a senate of gods. 

Behold the most expeditious manner of silenc- 
ing those cavillers. Yes, gentlemen, we know 
very well that God alone is infallible by essence ; 
and this is why we hold that every religion that 
is not marked with the visible seal of God, is but 
a human invention, and that those who belfeve in 
it, or pretend they believe in it, are only miserable 
dupes or hypocritical atheists. Do you agree with 
us that the true religion, that is to say, the law 
which God necessarily owed to men, is a work 
essentially divine? 

Be it so; what would you conclude from that? 

We conclude the absolute necessity of an infal- 
lible religious authority. In fact, do you not see, 
that to confide the teaching of the divine law to 
men whom nothing guarantees from error, would 
be to try to keep wine by pouring it into a barrel 
pierced with holes? 



202 The People s Ark. 

If you admit that Jesus Christ is the Eternal 
Son of God, or, at least, his Envoy to enlighten 
the world, you must confess, that after so much 
abasement and suffering to give the true law of 
God to men, He was necessarily obliged to provide 
the means to perpetuate and render universal the 
knowledge of that law in the world. Now those 
means may be reduced to two : either to remain 
Himself in a visible manner on the earth, and 
to constitute Himself to the end of time, pope, 
bishop, pastor, and catechist for all and every 
one, or to confide that mission to a body of 
pastors whom He would preserve from all error 
in religious matters, by a special assistance. 

That Jesus Christ has chosen the latter part, 
is what we read in the broad light of the Gospel, 
of Christian history; this it is that demonstrates 
to every earnest thinker the supernatural spectacle 
of that Catholic Church, which, during eighteen 
hundred years has seen all human institutions 
pass away, while she herself remains. 

Because we recognize in the pope the supreme 
spiritual, and, consequently, infallible power, we 
make him neither a god nor a demi-god, but we 
look on him as being what Jesus Christ has made 
him— the visible head of the Church, the centre 
of Catholic unity, the vicar and representative 
of the Man-God. 

Because the gospel teaches us that the Epis- 
copacy is associated to the exercise of the spiritual 
power, and consequently to its essential prero- 
gatives, w r e hold the Episcopacy to be divinely 
assisted, and consider its members, whether indi- 



Fifteenth Entertainment. 203 

vidually or collectively, as the envoys, the ministers, 
the men of God, but we do not make them a senate 
of gods. Such, my friends, is the answer of all 
sensible Christians, armed with the testimony of 
one hundred passages of the Gospel, and all the 
historical monuments of our faith. I do not tell 
you that this answer will render all reply impossi- 
ble to our enemies ; for it would be as reasonable 
to try to prevent the wind from blowing as to 
prevent their ravings ; but in thus receiving those 
knaves on the threshold of the door, we reduce 
them to their ordinary resource, which is to fly 
from the field. 

MAYOR. 

Yes, sir; I believe I see that that infallibility of 
the Church, which foolish minds represent to us 
as a dogma so difficult to digest, is, after all, with 
Christians a matter of common sense. My argu- 
ment against the reasoner who, while calling 
himself a Christian, refuses to believe in the in- 
fallibility of the Church's teachings, would be this: 
What do you think, sir? must we all seriously 
believe in the Christian religion, or is it enough 
for the ignorant to believe in it? If all must 
believe, and are blameworthy if they do not, it is 
indispensable that the minister charged to teach 
religion be infallible, and held as such by all, for 
how could you expect me to trust from my heart 
and in all sincerity, masters whom I should believe 
liable to be deceived or to deceive me ? If you 
say that faith is for the ignorant and the vulgar, 
and that men of spirit and high standing can do 
without it, you will allow me to disagree with you. 



204 The People s Ark. 

I am well convinced that if religion is necessary 
to all classes, it is particularly necessary to the 
influential and the literary. 

Who cannot see that it is the noble, the educated 
and the rich who lead society, and that when those 
gentlemen give the example of contempt for reli- 
gion, a great part of the people wish no more of it, 
and believe in those who preach the necessity of 
plundering and murdering the rich, the educated 
and the higher classes? In a word, there must be 
one of two things — either an infallible Church, or 
no lasting religious faith ! 

Such would be my reasoning, and I do not 
think that it can be opposed by anything solid. 
But if the principle, that is to say, the necessity ot 
an infallible religious power is incontestable, one 
cannot be without inquietude in regard to its con- 
sequences. In seeing this necessary but formidable 
authority vested in one man, the pope, it would 
require a very lively faith in the divine assistance 
not to be affrighted. Does the Church in her 
constitution afford any guarantees against the abuse 
of such a prerogative? This, sir, is a point on 
which I am not sufficiently well informed, and 
upon which I think further enlightenment neces- 
sary. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir, those explanations are necessary, and 
I hope you will find them very reassuring against 
the dread of the abuse of infallibility. 

This shall form the matter of the following 
entertainment 




SIXTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Remedy against the fear of the abuse of infallibility — ■ 
Necessity of infallibility fob the liberty of all, par- 
ticularly OF THE PEOPLE, 

'OWARDS the end of the preceding entertain- 
ment, the Mayor asked me what securities 
have Catholics against the possible abuses of 
the prerogative of doctrinal infallibility. I 
reply — the divine gift of infallibility makes all 
abuses simply impossible. The Church is an 
organism divinely constructed — " it is a body 
whereof Christ is the head" — it cannot admit "spot 
or wrinkle, or blemish ;" therefore no defect, no 
variation in its divine action can occur. Hence it 
is so conservative of truth, and so destructive of 
error, that it is infallible in the execution of the 
work committed to it by the divine founder. 
Infallible ; — it cannot deceive nor be deceived; there 
is no room for any abuse. This is explicitly and 
definitely appointed by our Blessed Lord. When 
He constituted the Church, personated in twelve 
apostles, the Teacher of His Gospel, He decreed : 
"Go, teach all things I have commanded to be 
observed." Nothing more nor less ; no oppor- 
tunity or danger of error, of mistake, of abuse. 



18 



205 



206 The Peoples Ark. 

The comprehensive terms, "all things," so cover 
the whole teaching operation, that there is no 
room left for divergency or extravagance. Now, 
infallibility is here established as an essential and 
vital principle, in the doctrine which consists of 
the " things Christ commanded to be observed/' 
which being divine, cannot deceive nor be a mis- 
take; also in the ministry which is by divine 
authority commanded to " Go and teach/' certainly 
not at the risk of failing anywise in the perform- 
ance of Christ's own work, committed to them. 
There is not an inch of space, nor a moment of 
time left, wherein any deviation or defalcation can 
occur; for the infallible work proceeds during "all 
ages and nations." Finally, guarantee is given 
against all mishaps, the Saviour saying: "I am 
with you until the end of time." No motive for 
fear or alarm ; the w r ork of teaching is so perfectly 
divine, that the Holy Ghost not only "teaches the 
ministry all truth," but also abides with it, " bring- 
ing to mind all the things our Lord commanded 
to be observed." 

The endowments imparted to the body and the 
head in the integrity of union were specially con- 
centrated in the head, and in a distinct formula, 
giving it a capacity and power exclusively appro- 
priate for the functions of the headship. Our 
Blessed Lord having appointed St. Peter head 
of the apostolic ministry, He informed him of the 
duties to be executed personally, and supremely 
in the capacity and with the power of the Vicar 
of Jesus Christ, viz: "To feed the whole flock, — 
to bind and loose on earth, — to keep and use the 



Sixteenth Entertainment. 207 

keys of the kingdom of heaven, etc.," ?.nd here 
emphatically declared the action of Peter, in all 
these respects, to be identical with the divine 
action in heaven, — " whatsoever you shall bind 
on earth, shall be bound in heaven." Now the 
vicariate of Jesus Christ is a delegation of divine 
power; therefore it is infallible; it is in action 
one with the divinity in heaven, therefore in the 
knowledge of its functions and application of that 
knowledge, it is infallible. Besides this plenitude 
of power and jurisdiction settled on St. Peter, 
he receives a prerogative exclusively and pecu- 
liarly the property of the head. The Saviour said 
to Peter alone: "Confirm thy brethren." He 
only can and must give the seal of divine security 
to all matters of religion, be they otherwise ever 
so proper and trustworthy. Hence to the Supreme 
Pastor of the Church belong the power and duty 
to define, or, in the words of Christ, to confirm 
the truths of religion. 

It is self-evident that Peter is infallible, and that 
his pontifical office is a prevention of error and 
a security against abuse. All this is derived, not 
from the conjunction of head and body, but is 
inherent in the head, being placed there by God 
Himself. Hence all speculations about Papal 
infallibility being realized in the consent of the 
entire episcopacy, and having effect through the 
agreement of the universal Church, are simply 
puerile. The Pope does not convene a council 
to be instructed, to have his duty appointed for 
him or to be confirmed, but he does it to ask 
the bishops — have you always taught "the things 



208 The Peoples Ark. 

Christ commanded to be observed"? Then he 
"confirms the brethren/* he defines that to be 
divine faith which has been taught by the authority 
of Christ, and under the instruction and by the 
suggestion of the Holy Ghost. 

All suppositions according to the standards of 
the vicissitudes of temporal and human events 
are inadmissible in the discussion of this subject. 
The constitution of the Church is divine, and thus 
it is out of the sphere of mortal and earthly 
casualties. This "faith/' as St. Paul says, "is our 
victory." 

What religion has made as many efforts as ours 
to reveal herself in the clearest light, that no one 
might be ignorant of what she teaches and prac- 
tises? Is not her catechism, a complete com- 
pendium of her teachings, placed in the hands 
of all ? Is she not anxious to impress it on the 
mind and heart of every Catholic who has attained 
the use of reason ? Has she not, in Europe alone, 
three hundred thousand sacred pulpits, and one 
million schools, wherein Catholic doctrine is ex- 
plained and expounded? Has she not a multi- 
tude of universities and ecclesiastical high-schools, 
wherein all religious matters are searched into, 
and victoriously defended against the attacks of 
false science ? Are not the public and private 
libraries filled with expositions of Catholic doc- 
trine? 

Nor is this all: the Catholic religion is really 
a religion, that is to say, according to the sense 
of the word, a law which binds and powerfully 
obliges men, which takes possession of all their 



Sixteenth Entertainment. 209 

faculties, not only of the mind and memory, but 
especially of the heart, the will, the imagination, 
and the entire conduct; it is, then, essentially 
positive and practical. In order to adapt herself to 
the present state of our souls, under the dominion 
of the senses, she renders herself palpable and 
sensible, incorporating herself in a thousand ways 
in worship and all that belongs to it. 

Do you not see, my friends, that the result 
of all this is the material and moral impossibility 
of even the slightest change in religious matters? 

Those matters being known by all, both pastors 
and people, and being read, even on the walls 
of our sacred edifices, any innovation would arouse 
the whole Catholic world, and the higher the 
rank of the innovator, the greater would be the 
excitement. This is what has happened every 
time that an heresiarch has threatened Catholic 
unity by trying to amalgamate his particular 
conceptions with the eternal doctrines bequeathed 
by Jesus Christ to the whole human race. 

What have the popes done under such circum- 
stances ? Have they availed themselves of their 
prerogative of infallibility to anathematize the new 
opinions immediately, without having taken the 
advice of the bishops ? without having heard the 
innovator and his partisans, and tried to bring 
them back by the way of persuasion ? 

No one can adduce a single instance of such 
a course. It is only after many years spent in 
the discussion of the controverted subjects that 
the pope, approving the decisions of a general 
council, and declaring them executory, or pro- 
18* 



210 The Peoples Ark. 

nouncing judgment himself, with the votes of the 
bishops, the advice of the Sacred College, or of 
the Congregations he has established for that 
purpose, declares and solemnly defines what is 
the true faith of the Church on the contested 
article, and strikes with the spiritual sword of 
excommunication, as a corrupter of the common 
faith, whoever refuses to submit to that Church of 
which Jesus Christ has said : He that will not hear 
it, let him be to tliee as tlie he at! ten and the publican. 

The last of the great heresies, Protestantism, 
born in the year 15 17, was not definitively judged 
until the Council of Trent, which lasted nearly 
eighteen year^, and was closed only in 1563. 

What is, then, my friends, that supreme authority 
which we recognize in the Church teaching by the 
Catholic priesthood, presided over by the Chief 
given her by Jesus Christ ? Is it in the power 
of the pope and bishops to decide according to 
their good pleasure, what we must believe and 
practise, and to give us from morning to night new 
dogmas and precepts? No; this is a power aban- 
doned to the male and female popes of heresy, 
which, as we shall soon see, they employ freely, 
without giving great umbrage to the sheep that 
follow them. You now understand that Jesus Christ 
has placed invincible obstacles to such licenses in 
His Church, not only by His promises, but also by 
the constitution of the sacerdotal hierarchy, and 
by the very nature of His religion, which is emi- 
nently popular, and so well known by all those 
who do not obstinately wish to be ignorant of it, 
that no change of any importance could be intro- 



Sixteenth Entertainment. 211 

duced without causing a great commotion. Catho- 
lic authority is, then, essentially conservative, and 
when it is displayed in solemn decrees, it is not to 
create new beliefs, but the better to explain, expose, 
and defend the invariable faith of all Christian 
ages, against the proud sophists who endeavor to 
corrupt it, and deprive the human race of it 

We need not, then, be surprised that those impu- 
dent falsifiers become furious against the authority 
which prevents them from mixing the poison of 
error with the salutary truths confided by the Son 
of God to the care of the apostolic priesthood; 
or that they are enraged to see the great majority 
of the children of the Church prefer the religion 
of the popes, the bishops, and fifty Catholic gene- 
rations, to their senseless dreams. Every heresi- 
arch who knowingly fights against the judgment 
of the universal Church, is a demon of pride, in 
whom we may suppose a grain of madness, but not 
of honesty. He is a child of Satan, who, like his 
father, wishes to be right, even against God. But 
do you not see, my friends, what would become 
of the religion of Jesus Christ, if religious society 
did not possess a power to which all must submit 
when it says to them : " Beware ; that is an error 
which proceeds from the abyss ; fly from its inven- 
tors and propagators as from public pests"? Were 
permission to be given to one heresiarch to preach 
his visionary doctrine peaceably, one hundred thou- 
sand others would immediately claim the same 
right. Among those hundred thousand Christiani- 
ties, how could the true one be discovered ? 

What, then, is the infallible power conferred by 



212 The Peoples Ark. 

Jesus Christ on the Head of His Church ? Is it an 
intolerable despotism which can be accepted only 
by fools, as is continually repeated by the crowd 
of heretical, schismatical and incredulous pansards? 
Far from it; it is the only possible security from 
political and religious despotism ; it is the only 
means of preventing the people from becoming, as 
St. Paul says, a crowd of children, tossed to and fro, 
and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the 
wickedness of men, in craftiness by which they lie in 
wait to deceive both soul and body.* 

THE MAYOR. 

Yes, sir; this old accusation against the spirit- 
ual power, can be repeated only by those who 
are enemies to every religion not of their own 
fashioning, or by the fools whom they have indoc- 
trinated. I thank you for having so well secured 
me against the imaginary dangers of religious 
infallibility. Would to God that our most liberal 
political constitutions could afford us one-half the 
securities against the excessive and arbitrary power 
of our rulers, that we find in the constitution of the 
Church. 

Armed with my Catechism, which does not 
differ from my great-grandfather's, I know all, the 
obligations imposed on me by the laws of God and 
His Church, and if my pastor were to try to add 
to, or retrench from it, one unanimous cry would 
denounce him to the bishop. I see that those 
obligations were the same for my ancestors, that 

* Ephes., ch. iv. 11 — 14. 



Sixteenth Entertainment. 213 

they are the same for all my Catholic contempo- 
raries, and I am bound to believe that they will 
remain the same for my great-grandchildren. 

This is, it seems to me, a religious system which 
we find united with Order, Fraternity, Equality, 
and also with Liberty, unless we make religious 
liberty consist in the power of living without reli- 
gion. As to the political and civil order, I would 
be very curious to know if there is one man in 
Europe who can tell me exactly under what civil 
or political regime my ancestors lived, under what 
regime my countrymen and myself are living, and 
under what kind our children shall live. All that 
I know is, that I can scarcely remember the 
number of political constitutions under which I 
have lived, and that it would require at least ten 
yoke of oxen to carry the rubbish of the laws, 
decrees, and regulations made by our governments 
since my childhood. Uncertain of what is reserved 
for our posterity, I ardently wish that, thanks to 
the follies of their forefathers and the lessons of 
Plato Punchinello, they may have enough of 
political good sense to laugh at their ease at our 
foolishness. I begin to suspect that they shall 
enjoy that happiness, only so far as they become, 
what we no longer are, good and true Catholics. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir, Catholicism or death ! Such is the alter- 
native to which we are reduced by a superior 
power. I am so sure that we shall not escape it, 
that, notwithstanding my repugnance to name a 
date in the future,! have said, and I repeat without 



214 The Peoples Ark. 

the slightest hesitation, that before the year 1900 
the great majority of the nations of Europe shall 
either be confirmed in the Catholic faith, or there 
shall not remain of their present inhabitants a 
number sufficient to wash the feet of their new 
masters. 

In the following entertainment we shall see 
briefly what you, the common people particularly, 
owe to the Catholic faith, and what you may ex- 
pect for your children in its future triumph. This 
magnificent subject will, I hope, determine you to 
neglect nothing by which you may concur to that 
triumph; by it you will know more clearly what 
the friends of God and humanity owe to those who 
have labored, and who still labor to ruin, or, at 
least, retard this eminently divine and human work. 




SEVENTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

What the people owes to its modern eriends, and what 
it owes to Jesus Chrtst — Comparison between Catholic 

INSTITUTIONS AND REVOLUTIONARY INSTITUTIONS — WHO ARE 
THE PEOPLE'S TRUE ERIENDS, 

[([F the people is not a happy body, living in the 
midst of wealth and enlightenment, it is not 
certainly for want of warm friends and valor- 
ous champions in the regions of power. Since 
the people has been called to govern itself by its 
elections, where are the deputies or candidates for 
office who have not made profession of unlimited 
devotedness to the interests of the masses, and who 
have not confirmed their protestations by warm 
shaking of hands and more or less drinking of 
wine? Where are the public officers who have not 
clung desperately to bench or chair for the greater 
happiness of the people, or who have refused to 
increase the public debt, by working longer for the 
moral and material improvement of the laboring 
classes ? If some men of that species have been 
found, you will at least agree, my friends, that they 
have never been numerous, nor have they been 
flattered by the public journals. 

Nevertheless, it is clearly seen by every one not 
wilfully blind, that the moral and material condi- 

215 



21 6 The Peoples Ark. 

tion of the masses has fearfully deteriorated under 
the government of the sovereign people, so that 
its sovereignty bears a strong resemblance to that 
which Pilate decreed to the Crucified of Calvary. 

How comes it that the works have so badly 
answered to the promises ? Whence comes it that 
you have never been more plundered and deceived 
than under the bright reign of public discussion, 
and charters published and applied by your friends? 
Whence comes it that you have never been so 
much enslaved as under liberal institutions, and 
that the cheap government is clearly found to be 
the dearest and most outrageous ? All this is a 
mystery only to incorrigible simpletons. I have 
already told you in the Reveil du Peuple, and it 
cannot be too frequently repeated: the majority of 
those who have governed you, have been generally 
self-worshippers. Now it belongs essentially to 
them to be devoted to self above everything, and 
to love the people as the wolf loves the lamb, as 
the hawk and the fox love fowl. Politicians of 
this class are but demons, who, taking the people 
for a crowd of simpletons, try to flatter and lull 
them to sleep with fine phrases, that, in the end, 
they may rob them at will, stuff them with taxes, 
and lead them to revolution. 

It is time that the people should understand the 
infallible sign by which it may be able to know its 
exterminators from its friends; its executioners 
from its devoted benefactors. This sign, my 
friends, is faith in Jesus Christ, but faith demon- 
strated by works. Faith without works is dead, 
says the Scripture, and the Saviour admonishes us 



Seventeenth Entertainment. 217 

that He will recognize as His own, not those who 
shall have spoken in His name, but those who shall 
have accomplished the will of His Father. 

That Jesus Christ had been and is still the 
friend, par excellence, of all classes, but particularly 
of the poor and the suffering ; that by His devo- 
tedness and that of His Church, He has attracted 
the lowly, the poor and the feeble, who form 
at least the nineteen-twentieths of our species ; 
that He is the primary author, propagator and 
defender of the principles of fraternity, equality, 
and universal liberty, in a word, of all the prin- 
ciples of true civilization, and of all really popular 
institutions ; all this, my friends, I believe I have 
already proved to you in the full light of history, 
and it can be called in question only through 
great dishonesty or gross ignorance. 

Outside the Jewish nation, living under * the 
law of the true God, where was the people in 
the first year of the Christian era? The people 
had no existence; but in its place there was an 
innumerable mass of individuals whom the philo- 
sophers, legislators, and writers of that epoch 
called a second species of men, created for the service 
and good pleasure of their masters. What are still 
the non- christian nations of our day? They are 
troops of slaves who regard as a god or demi- 
god the monster who governs them, and recognize 
in him, without the least difficulty, the right to 
dispose arbitrarily of their property, their children, 
their lives. 

How did Christ progressively create, enlighten, 
and enfranchise the popular classes? Was it by 
19 



218 The Peoples Ark. 

debating or writing in fine phrases on the rights 
of the people, as do our philosophers, journalists 
and novelists, after having dined luxuriously in 
their gilded saloans, at the public cost? Was it 
by continually prating in noisy legislatures where 
our popular revolutionists have been, for more 
than half a century, legislating for the liberty, 
instruction, and well-being of the people, yet work- 
ing only for its enslavement, its brutalization, and 
its ruin. 

No; it was in making Himself a slave, in being 
born like the last and the poorest of slaves, that 
the Son of God broke the strength of slavery; it 
was by assuming the laborious life of the artisan, 
that He prepared the ennobling of labor and the 
laborers ; it was by evangelizing towns and country 
by day and by night; it was by placing Himself 
at the service of the poor, the sick and the igno- 
rant, that He labored for the education and relief 
of the people; in fine, in order to obtain from 
divine justice and human apathy, universal redemp- 
tion, He crowned a life the most devoted to the 
salvation of all, by delivering Himself to the most 
cruel and humiliating death. This was, it seems 
to me, paying dearly enough for the title of 
friend, of Saviour of all, and particularly of those 
masses of the people to whom the ancient dema- 
gogues refused the quality of men, and whom 
modern demagogues have used as labor-machines 
and food for powder. 

Nor is this all. It is evident that the life and 
death of the Man-God would have been without 
results for humanity, had He not confided the 



Seventeenth Entertainment. 219 

word of salvation, the charter of the human race, 
to apostles sufficiently devoted to God and man, 
to publish and maintain it, from age to age 
throughout the universe, at the price of their 
blood. 

It is again certain that the evangelical charter 
would have run great risk of being altered or 
ignored, had not the Divine Liberator rendered 
Himself present in a real, although invisible man- 
ner, in the midst of His own, to direct and sustain 
them ; if, in order to preserve and augment the 
fire of divine charity, He had not appeared to all, 
and had not communicated Himself to all in the 
adorable sacrifice and sacrament of our altars. 

And here, my friends, I beg you to observe 
one difference between the institutions of pretended 
Catholic despotism, and the liberal institutions of 
revolutionary democracy. 

If Catholicity bows all human heads, those of 
pontiffs and princes, as well as of laymen and 
plebeians, under the obligation of believing the 
same things, of fulfilling the same duties, in re- 
compense, it produces for all the same spiritual 
advantages. 

Whether you be one of the Pope's household, 
or a member of the poorest Catholic parish in 
Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, it is all the 
same. If in this last state you be so unfortunate 
as to be lost, or that you attain a less height in 
lieaven than the Pope's officer, the fault will be 
your own, and not that of the Church, who has 
placed in your hands the same general means of 
sanctification as are enjoyed by the popes and their 



220 The Peoples Ark. 

household. In fine, by the obligations imposed 
on them, all Catholics are the people, and by the 
advantages they enjoy they are kings. The sole 
distinction to be recognized among them is that 
of the priesthood ; but the priesthood is only a 
public charge, exercised for the benefit of all by 
those ministers whose supreme Head is, with truth, 
called the servant of the servants of God. 

Among the millions of martyrs who have brought 
about the triumph of Christian civilization, has 
any class given so many as the priesthood? or, 
rather, is there a single martyr who has volun- 
tarily given his life for the faith, unless after the 
example, or under the inspiration of the priest- 
hood ? 

Fraternity, equality, liberty for all, founded on 
the law and charity of Jesus Christ, ever living in 
His priesthood; — behold what the Catholic Church 
really offers us ! 

Let us now glance at the beautiful institutions 
of revolutionary leaders. Their constitutions are 
headed by the words ; " Liberty for ever ! Down 
with despotism \" And those same constitutions 
decree that liberty shall consist in the right, for 
the ministerial majority, to dispose despotically 
of all the moral and material interests of the 
people, and for the public to suffer everything and 
pay for everything. 

Then we read: " Long reign universal equality! 
Down with privileges !" Yet it is found that the 
capital is everything, in it everything is accumu- 
lated, power, enlightenment, wealth and pleasures, 
leaving only to the provinces the monopoly of 



Seventeenth Entertainment 221 

abjection, work, and misery. One of the most 
abominable emperors of Rome, desiring to rid 
himself of his subjects by one blow, cried out : 
Would that the Roman people had but one head ! 
. . . . Our modern revolutionists have so well 
accomplished that monster's wish, that they revo- 
lutionize a nation as one would turn an omelet. 
As to their fraternity and love for the people, it 
is evident that they have always consisted in two 
things : first, in causing the destruction, as aristo- 
crats and enemies of the people, of those who have 
given them offence, or whose fortune they covet: 
second, in preying upon one another, as soon as 
they begin to divide the spoil of the victims. The 
calendar of their saints and martyrs presents the 
names of robbers and murderers killed by other 
robbers and murderers, fearing for their own lives 
and purses. I am well aware that Marat, Danton, 
and their worthy colleagues, still find some vota- 
ries, who laud them as the immortal victims of the 
popular cause; this proves that the religion of Red 
Republicanism is not near its end ; but I hope, my 
friends, that it has found no adepts among you. 

MAYOR. 

No, sir; with the exception of two or three 
admirers of 1793, virtuous enough themselves to 
have drawn the attention of justice, and deserving 
of a lodging at the expense of the state, I do not 
think we have any devotees of the revolution. As 
to the heroes of that infernal worship, I know 
enough of their deeds and actions to be convinced, 
that if they did anything for the country, it was on 

19* 



222 The Peoples Ark. 

that day, when, after having covered it with blood 
and ruins, they conceived the salutary idea of mur- 
dering one another. My horror for Robespierre 
is diminished when I see him sending to the 
scaffold, Danton, Hebert, Camille Desmoulins, and 
a host of other friends and brothers. My heart is 
dilated when I afterwards see the heroes of the 
ninth Thermidor, after having broken Robespierre's 
jaw, in a hall of the Hotel-de-Ville, drag the Incor- 
ruptible friend of the people and so many of his 
associates to the Place de la Revolution. I have 
only one regret; it is, that in the moment in which 
Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, Henriot, etc., fell, 
there was not found a representative of the true 
people, to end the festival by going, well escorted, 
to read to the tribunal of the Convention this 
decree: " Inasmuch as the half of the members of 
the assembly and all the members of revolution- 
ary tribunals and committees, are worthy of follow- 
ing their chief, they are declared outlaws, with the 
injunction to the citizens' executioners to make 
away with them without the least delay." 

In fine, what were all those martyrs and advo- 
cates of the cause of the people ? As you have 
said, sir, they were true sensualists, adoring only 
their miserable selves, thriving on blood and rapine, 
and loving the public as the tiger loves his prey. 
This is the character common to every man desti- 
tute of religion ; he is necessarily an egotist, and 
adorer of all his vices, and if he be neither a thief 
nor assassin, it is less his fault than that of circum- 
stances. To Christian faith alone it belongs to 
make souls devoted to God and men. 



Seventeenth Entertainment. 223 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir; the real love of God and our neighbor, 
which makes us love God above all, and men, even 
our enemies, as ourselves, is evidently a super- 
natural fruit of Christianity; for it is found no 
where else, unless, perhaps, in a few chosen souls 
whom God leads to Christianity by ways known 
only to Himself. But the heroic charity, which, 
elevating a man above all self-seeking, determines 
him to devote himself to the service of his brethren 
purely for the love of God, and even to give, if 
necessary, the greatest proof of Christian charity, 
the proof of his blood in accepting martyrdom ; 
this charity, I say, is a virtue so supernatural and 
divine, that it has never been met with, save in the 
Church of the true disciples of the Lamb immo- 
lated for the salvation of all and every one. 

That the charity which extends to complete 
devotedness of self, even to martyrdom, is an 
exclusively papist fruit, which ripens only under 
the warm influence of Catholic faith and practice, 
is a fact so notorious, that the greater number of 
Protestants make no difficulty in recognizing it, 
while many even impute it to us as a crime. In 
fact, if they dare not openly tax with fanaticism 
our missionaries who give their lives in order to 
spread the light of the Gospel among infidels, in 
revenge, they accuse of superstition and stupidity 
our religious of both sexes who engage themselves 
by vgw to the service of ignorant and suffering 
humanity. What could you expect, my friends? 
Luther, their father in Christ, who had his own 
reasons for disliking monastic vows, told them, 



224 The Peoples . Ark. 

three hundred years ago, that vows were an abomi- 
nation of popery, absolutely contrary to Christian 
liberty. They still believe in that oracle of the 
unfrocked monk. Therefore they enjoy themselves 
in the Christian liberty of the Bible-religion, which 
consists in every one remaining in his own house, 
and living for himself; and they contemptuously 
abandon to the stupid children of popery the 
imitation of the superstitious charity which led the 
Saviour-God, the slave of infinite love, to journey 
from the stable to Calvary by the rough and bloody 
way of obedience. Yes, my friends, let us with a 
holy pride, acknowledge . in the Catholic Church 
the sole and ever-fruitful mother of men great by- 
excellence, the heroes of God and humanity! Her 
annals show us nearly twenty millions of intrepid 
souls who braved all torments for the triumph of 
the only religion which can reconcile the univer- 
sality of men over the ruins of religions and 
societies founded by brutish and cruel men. Even 
in the present day, the epoch of cowardice and 
egotism, do you not see that wherever pagan or 
irreligious despotism places Catholics between 
their conscience and proscription, we are never 
wanting in bishops, priests and laymen, who say to 
the persecutors: We will suffer everything, even 
death itself, sooner than bend our heads beneath 
your barbarous laws ! 

Besides those legions of martyrs immolated for 
the defence of our faith, the Catholic Church pre- 
sents to us one hundred species of martyrs whose 
life is but a perpetual immolation of nature to 
works of charity and faith. Those rnartyrs are 



Seventeenth Entertainment. 225 

innumerable. Count, if you can, the religious con- 
gregations whose members devote themselves for 
life, some to the holy austerities of the cloister, 
others to the instruction of the ignorant, to the 
succor of the poor, the sick, the unfortunate, etc. 
It is that long and admirable martyrdom which 
renders religious societies infinitely dear to true 
Catholics, and makes them hated by advanced 
free-thinkers. 

Wherever these triumph, they never fail to rush 
with delight on religious communities, and why? 
First, to satisfy their satanic rage by abolishing 
the living proofs of Christian charity. Secondl} 7- , 
because they know well that the religious will not 
receive them with guns or swords. Cowardly 
before strength, and ferocious before weakness, 
such is the indelible character of these revolution- 
ists, above all, if they be men of the pen. There- 
fore, I would always say to Catholics who have 
not renounced the rights of secular life : When you 
have anything to do with those valiant destroyers 
of communities, do not amuse yourself in reason- 
ing, but aim straight at the stomach ; if they have 
a soul, as is probable, it is there you will find it. 

What, in reality, is that Catholic priesthood, 
which, during so many centuries, has devoted 
half a million of men to the most laborious task 
by saying to them : Renounce all the hopes of the 
world to consecrate yourselves to study, to perfect 
observance, to the teaching and vindication for and 
against all,. of a law which, sparing no evil passion, 
will expose you to the fury of the wicked and the 
incessant murmurs of the good. 



226 The Peoples Ark. 

You, my friends, who recognize in the priest 
only an ordinary man, better lodged, better clothed 
and better fed than yourselves, and moreover, free 
from the encumbrance of a family, are in the habit 
of saying, Priests have no cause to complain! I, 
who for a long time have closely studied and com- 
pared social conditions, am very much of St. Paul's 
opinion, when he says that the ministers of Jesus 
Christ would be the most miserable of all men, had 
they not for their consolation the future glory of 
heaven.* 

What are really the engagements of the victims 
of the priesthood ? To solemnly renounce from 
their early youth, by ecclesiastical celibacy, the 
independence of secular single life, and the sweets 
of family life, in order to bind themselves to the 
most severe discipline and most painful duties ; to 
oblige themselves before God and men to bring 
about the divine reign of the law of the Gospel, in 
a family more or less numerous, called a diocese 
or parish, which has nothing so much at heart as 
to ignore that law, or bend it to the pretensions or 
convenience of each individual ; to combat inces- 
santly the universality of ignorance and prejudice 
in religious matters, and, for this end, to continu- 
ally examine the same points in public and in 
private instructions ; to speak to every one in the 
manner best suited to him; to repeat the catechism 
with the ignorant; to dispute and philosophize 
with gray-haired children ; to give reasons for 
everything to people who know nothing, and 
know religion and the Church only by the silly 

* I. Cor. xv. 19. 



Seventeenth Entertainment 227 

calumnies of her enemies. To religious instruc- 
tion, the essential foundation of all Christian life, 
let us add the other functions of the sacred minis- 
try, the administration of the sacraments, above 
all, of the most disagreeable, the sacrament of 
penance, — to enclose one's self in the narrow 
prison of the confessional, to become the confidant 
and physician of the moral maladies which infect 
all classes, from the great lord even to the beggar; 
to hasten at any hour of the day or night to the 
bed-side of the dying, whoever he may be, or 
wherever he may be found, and without taking 
thought of the weather, or the probable conse- 
quences of excessive fatigue; — in a word, to make 
himself, in the spiritual, and even in the temporal 
order, the perpetual slave of all classes, above- all, 
of the unfortunate, whose cause he must espouse, 
whose sufferings he must alleviate ; — such are the 
principal obligations of the Catholic priest ; they 
are a frightful responsibility in the sight of God, 
and on the part of men, they present the most 
disheartening difficulties. 

Let us now glance at the general conduct of 
men towards the Catholic priesthood, out of the 
time of violent persecution, that is to say, when 
the scribes and pontiffs of the revolutionary church 
have not the power of so far deceiving and per- 
verting a population as to excite them to the cry : 
Down with the priests ! 

In the eyes of our holy Mother, the Church, 
men are divided into decided enemies, conditional 
friends, and devoted friends. Now all, both friends 
and enemies, unite in tormenting the priest. 



228 The Peoples Ark. 

To the enemies, what are priests ? A set of 
hypocrites, bigots, ambitious intriguers, furious des- 
pots, exterminators, corrupters and oppressors of 
the human species, whose extermination should be 
desired and hastened by every friend of humanity. 
Such is the idea which their enemies are never 
tired of reproducing under a thousand forms, more 
or less artful or brutal, by the mouth of their 
orators, the pen of their writers, the pencil of their 
artists, and the lyre of their poets. As the reward 
of a life immolated to the evangelization of men 
and the promotion of their happiness, they see 
themselves accused of all vices, of all crimes, by 
the infamous swine and robbers nourished by 
human society, and they have no other arms 
against the machinations of hell than patience and 
prayer; such is the priest's destiny. 

To enemies who calumniate, while waiting a 
favorable opportunity to destroy, are joined con- 
ditional friends, who, in every possible way, fetter 
the action of the priesthood. By these I under- 
stand the crowd of honest conservators, who, feel- 
ing the necessity of a religion to defend their lives 
and their social positions against the atheism of 
the rabble, are much disposed to take it under 
their high protection, provided, however, that it 
does not dare to say to them as to the vulgar 
crowd: Study your catechism; assist at the in- 
structions and offices ; confess your sins ; repair 
the injuries you have done to others; renounce 
your idleness, luxury, and impure pleasures; be 
more laborious, less avaricious, less harsh towards 
the poor ; more Christian in everything. But this, 



Seventeenth Entertainment. 229 

they say, is an unwarrantable assumption; it is to 
wish to lead us back to the Middle Ages; it is to 
wholly ignore the progress that we owe to the 
lights of philosophy and constitutional liberty! 
If after having been fifty years under the rod, the 
priests have neither learned nor forgotten anything, 
we will abandon them to their fate. 

And, in fact, for fear of returning to the Middle 
Ages, those honest conservators deliver up the 
priest to the executioners, not suspecting that for 
one priest and two or three Catholic believers, the 
knife of the atheists will send ten thousand of the 
devotees of philosophy to the eternal dwelling- 
place of fools. 

In fine, the priest is charged with the more or 
less numerous family of the children of the Church, 
whose spiritual wants, whose real or fancied neces- 
sities, keep him in continual anxiety. If {hey 
hear his voice and do what he commands, he must, 
in return, lend his ear and assistance to all their 
holy fancies, and the most devout are far from 
being the most easy to satisfy. 

In order to obey the voice and example of the 
Divine Master, who has charged him with universal 
evangelization, but particularly of the poor* does 
he not abandon for the moment the nijiety -nine just, 
to run after the strayed sheep? Does he not refuse 
to lavish spiritual favors on a few souls absorbed 
in devotion, in order to go and distribute the word 
of life to a multitude of sinful and ignorant people? 
Does he not love to be surrounded with the latter, 

* St. Luke iv. 18. 
20 



230 The Peoples Ark. 

and does he spare anything to render his church 
and confessional accessible to the poor? 

For many enlightened souls, who in this will 
recognize the character of a truly Catholic pastor, 
how many murmurs rise from a certain class, how 
many reproaches about the people and bad educa- 
tion. 

In this universal conspiracy against the priest, 
where shall he seek his consolation? In his con- 
science ? But of all Christian consciences, the 
conscience of the good priest is the most clamor- 
ous, the most intolerant that he could consult. 
It reduces to nothing the good that he docs; it 
reproaches him with the good that he does not do, 
and the evil he allows to be done; it magnifies 
the faults committed through frailty. 

That peace which he causes to reign in the 
souls that he directs, he himself possesses with 
difficulty, and when he enjoys it, he is afraid of 
delusion. 

Poor victims, nailed by the sacerdotal office to 
the cross for your whole life, resign yourselves to 
the fate of your Divine Master. 

Could you expect men full of indifference for 
the God of Charity, born in a crib, dying on Cal- 
vary, enchained by love upon our altars, to set any 
value on your hard labors, your incessant tortures? 
Expect neither gratitude, justice, nor repose, before 
that hour in which your soul, freed by death from 
the heavy weight of your chains, shall receive in 
exchange the immense weight of glory due to a 
martyrdom, the longest, most sorrowful, and most 
rending to the soul, the most obscure, and the 



Seventeenth Entertainment 231 

least appreciated by those who reap the fruits 
of it. 

What are the fruits of the Catholic priesthood's 
devotedness? And why, instead of reaping them 
in abundance, are Christians in danger of losing 
them forever? 

We shall see this, my friends, in the following 
entertainments. 




EIGHTEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

What Christian civilization is — Why it has made so little 
progress — Authors and partisans of schism and heresy, 
and their manner of proceeding — how a nation cam" 
baffle it, or how it may become their plaything. 

N our enlightened age, which has placed itself 
under the government of the pretentious me- 
diocrity and ignorant declaimers, no word has 
so often resounded in our ears as that of 
civilization. 

Among the innumerable barkers of philosophy, 
journalism, and parliamentary tribunes, not one 
can be found who does not establish himself as an 
organ of the lights and principles of our civilization, 
and who has not sworn to defend them against the 
dark enterprises of clerical obscurantism. But not 
one thinks of telling us plainly what they mean by 
civilization. Declamations and generalities please 
talkers of that species; as to definitions, which are 
the seal of science, they like them as much as 
they do the touch of hot iron. 

What is it to civilize men ? Is it to teach them 

so much to prefer their sensual desires and earthly 

joys before the promises and commands of the 

Catholic faith, that it would require many large 

232 



Eighteenth Entertainment. 233 

armies always on the qui vive to prevent those who 
have little or nothing, from robbing and killing 
those who have more ? 

This, my friends, is the beautiful task imposed 
on themselves, during sixty years, by the talkers 
about civilization; and if we are not now in a 
complete state of barbarism, we owe it to the 
obscurantism of two bodies of militia; the one, 
always subjecting a great number of souls to the 
law of Jesus Christ; the other, holding in check 
the self-worshippers. 

To civilize men, is to make them mutually 
understand, support, aid, and compassionate one 
another, in their moral and material miseries; in a 
word, to love one another, and to take as the rule 
of their mutual relations, that law unknown before 
Jesus Christ: Love one another as I have loved you. 

Who cannot see it, unless he does not wish to 
see, that the irreplaceable foundation of civilization 
is Christian charity, which, as the word indicates, 
consists in all men regarding one another as of the 
same flesh, one and the same body, whose every 
member takes a lively interest in the affairs of the 
others, and holds as done to himself the good or 
evil that happens to them. 

Now, to lead people to love one another thus, 
it requires nothing less than the power of the 
Catholic faith, and the indefatigable devotedness of 
the martyrs of the priesthood. It is evidently to 
the priesthood, and to all the faithful who second 
its action, that society owes what it still retains 
of Christian virtues and active charity, that is to 
say. of civilization. 
20* 



234 The People s Ark. 

Recall to your minds, my friends, what I have 
said in one of the preceding entertainments, of the 
peace, the union and happiness which the Catholic 
faith procures to individuals, to families, and to 
communities which show themselves docile to its 
precepts. Multiply, then, those individuals, those 
families, and those communities, so as to form a 
nation wherein all, penetrated with a lively faith in 
the judgment of God, apply themselves to merit 
the eternal crown by a constant fidelity to all the 
duties of their state; what a model nation! Doubt- 
less, there would be therein both great and small, 
rich and poor; but we should not see the first die 
of e?i7tui and satiety, nor the others live and die in 
the horrors of want and misery. The strong 
would exert their strength in the service of the 
weak, knowing that, at the tribunal of Jesus Christ, 
the weak will be the support and succor of the 
strong. What care in the governing not to abuse 
their power, or the public money ! What respect 
in the governed for power and the laws ! Or 
rather, in such a state, what necessity would there 
be for laws, asks a celebrated English Protestant, 
whose words I will quote for you. 

This statesman, after having examined the prin- 
ciples and institutions of the Catholic religion, thus 
concludes his work, as brief in words as extended 
in social science : 

" If in a Roman Catholic state no one were ever 
to turn aside (from these principles), the question 
would not be, Which is the best government? 
but rather — In such a government, what necessity 
would there be for laws ? Probably all human 



Eighteenth Entertainment. 235 

laws would be as superfluous and unnecessary, as 
they are now powerless, wherever they have not 
the Roman Catholic religion for their foundation."* 

These, my friends, are the expressions of com- 
mon sense, in every impartial mind that knows 
something of religion. 

Realize now, in imagination, the most ardent 
wish of Jesus Christ and His Church; extend to 
every nation under the sun the benefit of Christian 
faith ; suppose that all those nations now so sove- 
reignly barbarous and degraded, among whom we 
count only a feeble minority of Christians, con- 
tinually under the sword of the persecutor, become 
like their compatriots, Catholic Christians, behold- 
ing, as do we, in the whole human race only 
brethren created by the same God, the issue of the 
same marriage, redeemed by the blood of the same 
Saviour, and destined to live eternally united in 
the society of their Heavenly Father; — who could 
figure to himself the immense and happy results 
of such a revolution? How many abominable 
institutions destroyed! how many wars appeased! 
how many tears dried up! how many scourges and 
miseries ameliorated, if not removed, at the same 
time that all the strength now occupied in the 
destruction of good and the preservation of evil, 
would be employed in the moral and material 
improvement of the great family of God's children. 

Now here a question extremely interesting pre- 
sents itself: Why is not the universe entirely Chris- 

* Letters of Atticus, dedicated to Louis XYIII., by Lord 
Fitzwilliam. Letter v. 



236 The People s Ark. 

tian ? how does it happen that the religion of the 
Cross, which, in the first ages of its appearance, 
shook the world and subjected to its yoke the 
greater number of nations, should have met with 
immense losses in the vast continents of Asia and 
Africa, where it had displayed all the prodigies of 
charity, that is of Christian civilization? How 
comes it that that Europe, which, at the close of 
the eleventh century, was so much of the same 
mind in religious matters, that it rose as one man 
against the enemies of the Christian name, is, since 
1520, a prey to the most fearful religious dissen- 
sions, and hears with indifference the savage cry 
of more than one-third of its inhabitants: Down 
with Christ and His Church. 

This question, proposed to me by Mr. Mayor, in 
the Tenth Entertainment, I could then answer only 
in a general way. Now I intend to bring it for- 
ward into the light of common sense and history, 
and to show you, my friends, what the human race 
owes to the authors and first promoters of schisms 
and heresies. 

In what does schism consist? In separating a 
people from the communion of the Church founded 
by Jesus Christ, and in making it enter, either will- 
ing or unwilling, into a new church, built by a man 
for the benefit of his pride, or his cupidity. The 
author of a schism is a man who says: To save 
the religion of Jesus Christ, perverted by the abuse 
and prejudices of the court of Rome and the ultra- 
montane clergy, I desire to reconstruct the Church 
and reform the clergy. — And that man makes a 
church and a clergy according to his fancy. 



Eighteenth Entertainment. 237 

In what does heresy consist? In making a 
people reject, by inclination or compulsion, one or 
many articles of the faith revealed to the world by 
Jesus Christ and His apostles, and in causing it to 
profess the dreams of a wicked knave. The inven- 
tor of a heresy is a man who says : The Christian 
religion is true, but it has been misunderstood by 
the Catholic Church ; to me it belongs to recon- 
struct it ! — He constructs a religion to his fancy, 
which he cannot himself seriously believe, but 
which he makes to be believed by his dupes. 

That schism never advances without drawing 
heresy in its train; that those who desert the com- 
munion of the universal Church are not long in 
deserting its belief, and that for the communion 
of faith and charity which unites the disciples of 
the Lamb, Satan substitutes among his subjects, 
whoever they may be, the community of error 
and hatred, are facts the most natural, and the best 
substantiated. 

There cannot be found, at present, a single schis- 
matical Church that is not eaten by the worm of 
heresy, and which does not cry out with heretics, 
Down with the Roman Church ! That heresy, by 
force of pulling down and building up the Chris- 
tian religion, should end by utterly despising it, 
and saying, Christianity is a fable, is also very 
natural and well proved. Hence it is, that all the 
modern antichristian clique, from the deists Vol- 
taire and Rousseau, to the late atheists, Proudhon, 
Mazzini, Heinzen, etc., are natural children, but 
by no means bastards, of the fabricators of schis- 
matical and heretical religions. 



238 The Peoples Ark. 

What have those fabricators been? You under- 
stand, my friends, that in order to draw one or 
many nations out of the Church or the Catholic 
faith, it was necessary they should be men enjoying 
great influence, by their talents or social position. 
The author of a schism is often a wolf in the 
sheep-fold, in the clothing of a pastor, who by his 
excesses calls upon himself the severity of the 
supreme Pastor. Excommunicated by the Pope, 
the schismatic judge thought proper to excom- 
municate, to depose the Pope, and to make himself 
the supreme head of the ecclesiastical provinces 
which he succeeds in drawing into his revolt. Such 
was Photius, the intruded Patriarch of Constanti- 
nople, who in the ninth century produced the ever- 
to-be-deplored Greek schism. 

The inventors of heresy are ordinarily some 
renowned theologians, professors, and preachers, 
who to great talents join great pride. In their 
discourses or writings, they advance some great 
blunder, which might happen to all, but particu- 
larly to those who speak and write much. A 
retraction is called for; they reply by injuries; 
the Pope, after many useless attempts, ends by 
anathematizing that opinion opposed to the belief 
of all ages. The inventor, who has profited by the 
Pope's patience to make for himself many and 
powerful protectors, then becomes furious against 
the Pope and the Church of all ages; he makes 
of Rome the prostitute of Babylon, the great beast 
of the Apocalypse, of the pope an antichrist, of 
all Catholics miserable idolaters, and allows salva- 
tion to no one but the dupes who will believe and 



Eighteenth Entertainment. 239 

cause others to believe his condemned opinion as 
a sacred and inviolable dogma. Such was, in the 
fourth century, the inventor of the Arian heresy; 
such were, in the sixteenth century, the fabri- 
cators of the Lutheran, the Calvinist, and the 
Anglican religions, a Protestant trinity, which has 
given so many religions to Europe, that a part 
of its inhabitants no longer want any kind. 

However, those originators of schisms and here- 
sies would not have fair play, did not they find 
sovereigns disposed to second them by transform- 
ing into state religions their hellish inventions. 
Those rulers are princes, who, in matters of reli- 
gion, morals, and government, have fancies which 
they cannot satisfy in the midst of a people wholly 
Catholic. Their courtiers and mistresses tell them 
what the heart of despots already says too often : 
"Why incommode yourself? The pope and 
bishops can exercise against you only their old 
spiritual weapons ; yours are a little more formida- 
ble. The Church with her large revenues, her 
silver plate, her convents, her charitable institu- 
tions, is rich enough to pay the expenses of her 
burial. You have a multitude of ruined nobles, 
of greedy officials and citizens who will be glad 
to dig the tomb of popery if you abandon to them 
its spoils. The people will murmur, no doubt; 
the more reason for you to give them priests who 
will reduce religion to these three duties: first, 
adore God, then the king; obey him in everything; 
labor, and you shall be saved ! Look, sire, at the 
nations of the East and of Africa; they never 
think of murmuring, whatever may be done by 



240 The People s Ark. 

the monarch or his court. This is truly to reign. 
So long as you shall not have in your own hands 
the religion of your people, so long shall you be 
only the shadow of a sovereign." 

Sovereigns find this admirable, and they labor 
to become the gods of their people. Such have 
been the grand dukes and czars of Russia who 
for so many centuries have reigned absolute mas- 
ters of both the souls and bodies of their subjects 
of the Greco-Russian schismatical religion. Such 
was Henry VIII., the exterminator of Catholicity 
in England, such were all the Protestant princes. 

Let us see now, my friends, how these mitred or 
crowned robbers succeed in despoiling a Catholic 
nation of the only religion which saves both soul 
and body, to impose on them a new religion, con- 
ceived by them in the madness of their pride, or 
filthy pleasures. They succeed in it by their infernal 
hypocrisy, through the number and activity of the 
sensual and the covetous, and through the folly 
and indifference of the people. 

Those demons take good care not to reveal their 
thoughts, by saying: "We do not want a religion 
w T hich lays its commands on every one ; we want 
one that will impose silence on the people while 
we rob them." If they were to speak thus, there 
is no nation, however little Christian it may be, that 
would not think it a duty of justice and charity to 
reply to them: Villains, fly! otherwise you will 
soon not have the power to do so. 

Being worthy children of their father who is in 
hell, they can always transform themselves into 
angels of light. 



Eighteenth Entertainment 241 

Gangrened by vice, consumed by debauchery, 
they hypocritically deplore the abuses which dis- 
figure the religion of Jesus Christ, formerly so 
pure. Those men who by their malversation and 
extravagance have consumed their patrimony and 
the finances of the state, never tire of speaking of 
the bad government of the Church, of the idleness 
of the clergy and the monks, and of the necessity 
of reforming the priesthood. They are powerfully 
seconded in this by many that wear the cassock, 
who wish to change the Church, for fear that the 
Church will oblige them to change their lives.- 

But the principal strength of the schismatical 
reformers is in the great army of the famished or 
half-satisfied sensualists. 

There are, in every country, men in the higher 
and middle walks of life who indulge in pleasures 
forbidden by the Catholic Church; men, who have 
but one-tenth of the money it w T ould require to pay 
their debts, and continue their life of idleness and 
debauchery. There is, everywhere, a crowd of 
hare-brained college youths, who after having 
ruined their family, wish to ruin the Church and 
the. state. There are thousands of doctors, with- 
out morals or doctrine, or rather, let us say, there 
is an infinity of men who need offices and gold for 
themselves and their sinful companions, and who 
can never obtain them but from a plundering and 
immoral government. These, then, are they who 
so passionately desire religious reform, and begin 
to rail in the clubs and journals against the pope, 
the cardinals, the bishops, priests, religious, and 
all that they call the clerical party. 
21 



242 The Peoples Ark. 

To this crowd of well-dressed voluptuaries who 
are the aristocrats of revolutions, are joined the 
ragged wretches, who are its people ; I mean 
those supporters of taverns, those freed from 
prisons, liberated convicts, etc., all cordial enemies 
of priests and religious, and none the less cordial 
lovers of the spoils of churches and convents. To 
be able at the same time to rob and destroy that 
Church which can alone strike terror into robbers 
and murderers, — what a happy chance for the 
chiefs and soldiers of revolutions ! 

Encouraged by this army of robbers, increased 
by the volunteers of crime, drawn together by 
Satan from a distance of two or three hundred 
leagues, the reformers published unjust laws 
against the rights of the Church and the liberty 
of the ministers of religion. The bishops reclaim 
those rights, protest against those laws, and are 
pursued and hunted for the crime of rebellion. 
The pope supports the protest of the bishops, and 
there rises a unanimous cry against the foreign 
despot who abuses a religion, all peace and charity, 
to disturb the state and sustain the factious. 
While they imprison, banish, or murder the faith- 
ful pastors, they make money out of the goods of 
the Church and the convents, in order to pay their 
executioners, and buy those apostates who blind 
the people by saying to them : M Good people, be 
not uneasy ! all this is for your greater good, and 
for the glory of our holy religion ! It was neces- 
sary first of all to free you from the infamous 
domination of the pope and his factious priests, 
who opposed all amelioration of your condition 



Eighteenth Entertainment. 243 

and devoured your riches while they kept you in 
ignorance. Now that the government is free to 
work for your happiness, you shall soon see its 
effects." 

There is now but one means of salvation left to 
the people ; it is that of an humble remonstrance 
to the monarch, conceived in terms the most 
respectful, but signifying this : — If, forgetting that 
you have the honor of reigning over a Catholic 
nation, you try to tread on our consciences that 
you may the more readily deprive us of our goods 
and liberty, we will send you to reign elsewhere. 
Revoke immediately those laws which have been 
imposed on you by ambitious knaves, and dismiss 
them ; otherwise the nation will provide for its 
own defence. 

Thus spoke the brave Belgian Catholics, when, 
towards the end of the last century, the Emperor 
Joseph IT. wished to endow a church after his own 
fashion. After many representations which had no 
other effect than to animate the persecutor, the 
Belgians had recourse to the last right of a people 
against its executioners. At a given signal the 
imperial edicts served to make cartridges, and the 
troops of the autocrat fled for their lives. Not 
being able to conquer them by force of arms, the 
hypocrite had recourse to the Holy See, (which 
up to that time he had overwhelmed with humilia- 
tions and outrages,) in the hope that the Supreme 
Pastor would invite his children to place themselves 
again under the government of the wolf. Pius VI. 
addressed some words of conciliation to the Bel- 
gians, but they replied : "Holy Father, in speaking 



244 The People s Ark. 

as you do, you fulfil the duty of the common 
Father of all Christians, and we like to believe 
that we, also, have fulfilled ours in beating the 
insolent violator of our faith and the compact into 
which we had entered with him. If he dare to 
return, let him beware!" 

Some time afterwards his Majesty, Joseph II., 
consumed by chagrin and anxiety, went to render 
an account to God of his marvellous reforms, and 
left to his successor one fair state the less. 

But if a nation have neither the religious energy 
of the Belgians, nor political chiefs sufficiently 
united to direct the national movement, and break 
the yoke of religious tyranny without falling under 
that of anarchy, the people will infallibly be en- 
slaved, after some partial insurrections have been 
stifled in blood. God will crown a greater or less 
number of martyrs, who will brave everything 
rather than leave to their children the infernal 
heritage of schism and heresy. The rest will fool- 
ishly slumber in the darkness of a phantom Chris- 
tianity, created by the blackest villains that have 
sprung from Satan's acquaintance with human per- 
versity. 

This is, my friends, the title undoubtedly de- 
served by those miserable men who have torn the 
unity of the Christian family, as we shall see in 
the following entertainment. 




NINETEENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 




CURIOUS COMPARISON BETWEEN" TWO SPECIES OF MONSTERS — WHY 
SO MANY OF THE REFORMERS AND STILL HONORED — POPU- 
LARITY of Anglicanism. 

(HEN we wish to designate in one word, a 
monster born for the shame and misfortune 
of our species, we are accustomed to say, 
he is a Nero. 

It is very true that that lascivious and ferocious 
beast, of whom I have already spoken to you in 
the Ninth Entertainment, neglected nothing to 
unite in his imperial person every vice, every 
crime, and thus became the image of human wick- 
edness, elevated to the height of power. 

But Nero was a pagan, the absolute head of a 
pagan society, at an epoch which the pagan moral- 
ist, Tacitus, thus defined : Corrupting and being cor- 
rupted is what we call the zvorld. Nero was then 
only what at that time a crowned villain could be ; 
he was the worthy representative of an impure and 
ferocious society. He cannot be accused of having 
corrupted the Romans, for the very simple reason 
that one cannot infect a charnel-house. 

It was not so with Christian teachers and poten- 
tates, who, in order to satisfy their satanic pride 
and brutal appetites, employed their talents and 

21 * 245 



246 The peoples Ark. 

power in dismembering Christianity at the moment 
it was about to consummate the deliverance of all 
nations, that they might divide among them the 
bleeding members, and subject half the children 
of truth and charity to the yoke of the most stupid 
errors and hatred. A brief comparison between 
some of Nero's exploits and those of the founders 
of schismatical and heretical religions, will place 
you, my friends, in a position to judge whether I 
have exaggerated in calling these the blackest vil- 
lains that have sprung from Satan s acquaintance 
with human perversity. 

Nero was so proud as to cause himself to be 
adored as a god, but that folly was consecrated by 
the general opinion of the pagans, and in it he 
only followed the example of other sovereigns, 
all placed by the servility of their subjects in the 
rank of the immortals. And then, with all his 
crimes, could not Nero appear without blushing 
in the assembly of the pagan gods, and say to 
them : After all, my dear colleagues, which of you 
can throw a stone at me? It will not be, I think, 
the father and master of us all, the great Jupiter, 
who began his career by dethroning his worthy 
father, Saturn. 

To reestablish the worship of the most auda- 
cious villains among those Christian nations who 
had conquered at the price of so much blood this 
great principle of all liberty : We are all disciples, 
and people in religion, tinder the sovereignty of our 
Divine Master and Father, Jesus Christ, behold the 
inexpiable crime of the Christian Neros, who, erect- 
ing their churches on the ruins of the divine 



Nineteenth Entertainment. 247 

Church, have caused, during so many centuries, 
the brutal conceptions of their pride to be adored 
by more than one hundred and twenty heretical 
and schismatical Christians. 

Some will tell me that neither the schismatics 
of the East, nor the heretics of the West, have 
made Photius, Luther, Calvin, Henry VIII. , etc., 
their gods. No ; they do not adore the persons 
of those corrupters of the universal religion ; but 
it is notorious that they always adore their most 
senseless, most antichristian dreams. 

Whence comes, in the schismatics of the Greek 
and Greco-Russian churches, that intense hatred 
against the Christians of the great Church, which 
causes the Catholics of the East to suffer infinitely 
more from the partisans of schism, than from the 
believers in Mahomet ? What has inspired those 
ignorant populations with that cry which hell has 
finally answered : Better to live under the govern- 
ment of the Turk than tinder that of the Pope ! 

It is historically demonstrated that the first 
originator of those hatreds and wicked prejudices 
was the eunuch, Photius. At the great day of re- 
velations shall not the Supreme Judge, in pointing 
to that ambitious innovator, have a right to say to 
the immense crowd of his more or less willing 
dupes : The god whose word you have heard and 
adored is not I; it is this miserable tormentor of 
my Church. 

The senseless affirmations of Luther, Calvin, 
Zwingle, etc., that the Bible is the religion given by 
jfesus Christ to all ; the Roman Church is tlie prosti- 
tute of the Apocalypse ; the Pope is Antichrist; the 



248 The Peoples Ark. 

Mass is an abomination invented by Satan; the 
CatJwlics are idolaters who adore the Pope and the 
saints, etc., etc.; — are not those absurdities, I say, 
the articles of faith preached to the people by all 
the Protestant sects? 

Do not the Anglicans of the present day cele- 
brate, more loudly than ever, the old dogma of 
their queen s religions supremacy, which rests on 
this supposition of folly and impiety — Jesus Christ, 
in order to deliver the English from papal tyranny, 
charged Henry VIII, and his illegitimate daughter, 
Elizabeth, to reform His religion, and He has con- 
fided to their successors on the throne, (it matters 
not whether their ministers of state be Christians 
or atheists,) the mission of leading His sheep in 
the ways of sanctity and justice? 

It is evident that the authors of the religious 
saturnalias of the sixteenth century are still the 
directing spirits of Protestantism, and that, in the 
light of truth, it may be said to those who boast 
their evangelical liberty : Behold the god whose 
wildest follies you have swallowed, with the blind 
faith of the Buddhist, incorporating with himself 
certain not very agreeable relics of the Grand 
Lama. 

Nero was a most shameless libertine; it was his 
right as a pagan, as emperor, and as a member of 
the obscene family of the gods. He did not, how- 
ever, publish a law, declaring as guilty of high 
treason, and condemning to be drawn and quar- 
tered, whoever should doubt the legitimacy of his 
adulteries, as did the holy founder of Anglicanism, 
Henry VIII. It is also probable that he would 



Nineteenth Entertainment. 249 

not have permitted the holy reformer, Luther, to 
preach publicly his sermon on Marriage. Had 
the monk of Wittemberg been his guest, he would, 
doubtless, have been amused at the incredible 
obscenities scattered through his Table-talk, and 
his letters to some friends ; but perhaps he would 
not have thought it well to publish his indecencies. 

In fine, if the glorious reformers were not able 
to lead Europe back to the morality of Nero's 
time, they at least obtained, that between the 
bigoted obligations of Christian marriage, and the 
rather loose principles of a community ofwomen, 
their honest followers adopted the wise medium: 
Marry one woman, live with others, and love only 
yourself. 

Nero was a thirster for blood, and never refused 
to his caprices either the life of man, or the honor 
of woman. This is also the testimony which 
could be rendered of Henry VIII., at the end of 
a life spent in blood and impurity. He bequeathed 
his tastes to his daughter Elizabeth, whom the 
English still call the good virgin — a virgin, indeed, 
after a very Protestant manner; one who gave 
death to seventy-five thousand of her beloved 
subjects, the greater number of whom were guilty 
of no crime but that of disbelief in her religious 
supremacy. What a mild and tolerant spirit was 
that of Luther, who, in 1525, the day after the 
massacre of one hundred thousand peasants, whom 
he had first incited to revolt, and then blessed 
their murderers, wrote: It is I who have shed that 
blood ! — Again, what a tiger under the cloak of a 
reformer was that Calvin, who surrounded himself 



250 The People s Ark. 

at Geneva with spies, executioners, and funeral- 
piles, and rendered himself so odious to his own 
flock that it was commonly said: Better would be 
hell with Beza* titan Paradise with Calvin. 

Now, if to the victims immolated by the heads 
of the new religions during their lifetime, we add, 
first, the innumerable victims slaughtered during 
the fearful persecutions and religious wars which 
deluged Europe with blood, from the middle of 
the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth 
century; secondly, the victims, up to the present 
day, of our wars and revolutions, ostensibly politi- 
cal, but really born of our religious antipathies, and 
the cry of Luther and Calvin, which still resounds, 
Down with the papacy ! thirdly, the probable vic- 
tims of that war imminent between the Europe of 
the conservators and the Europe of the rationalists 
and socialists, who demand only the free applica- 
tion of Protestantism to the social order ; if, I say, 
we count all these, what are the butcheries of 
Nero, compared with the open butcheries of the 
fathers of Protestantism ? — only a small stream of 
human blood compared to a vast sea. 

Nero caused the murder of his mother, Agrip- 
pina, a woman very wicked no doubt, but to whom 
he owed his life and throne. The creators of 
schism and heresy had nothing so much at heart 

* Theodore de Beze, although a warm partizan of the atro- 
cious theology of Calvin, and his successor in the Genevese 
papacy, was, however, a bon-vivant, who counting too surely 
on salvation by faith without works, and in spite of ivories, lived 
till extreme old age in the quasi-mahometan habits of his 
youth. 



Nineteenth Entertainment 251 

as the extermination of the Catholic Church, estab- 
lished by Jesus Christ as mother of all men, and 
from whose breast they had imbibed those lights 
and that religious influence of which they made so 
execrable a use. That unreflecting Christians do 
not conceive a great horror of this parricide, so long 
as they do not see its consequences, may very well 
happen, but on the day when eternal light will 
reveal to the gaze of all the extent of each one's 
works, there shall arise but one voice from the 
immense assemblage of angels, men, and demons, 
to recognize the fact, that while Nero, by his hatred 
against the Christians, only hastened the progress 
of the gospel, the schismatics and heretics of the 
East and the West have made incredible efforts to 
stifle it wherever it was reigning ; and if they have 
not been able to render impossible the conquest of the 
universe to the faith of Jesus Christ, they have, at 
least, been able to retai'd it for centuries. 

In fact, my friends, what was the effect of the 
frightful tortures inflicted on the Christians by the 
first persecutor of our faith ? They called the 
attention of the universe to that religion, and won 
for it immense success in the capital of the world. 
The constancy of the martyrs, joined to the general 
conviction of their innocence, keenly interested 
the honest pagans, as Tacitus remarks. Finally, 
at Nero's fall, there was a reaction in their favor. 
But who can tell us when shall fall the hatreds and 
furious prejudices incessantly raised against the 
church of the martyrs by the partisans of the anti- 
christian societies of Photius, Luther, Calvin, Henry 
VIII., etc.? See, then, what has been the result. 



252 The People s Ark. 

If, with the exception of the Christians more or 
less numerous, yet always oppressed, the six hun- 
dred million inhabitants of Asia live for the most 
part under the yoke of the absurd and inhuman 
superstitions of Buddhism, Brahminism, and other 
worships still more degrading ; if the magnificent 
countries conquered by Catholicity to Christian 
civilization have fallen under the brutalizing des- 
potism of the law of Mahomet, which makes of 
man an idle and lascivious animal; of woman a 
species created for the pleasure of man ; and of 
children an article of traffic, — to what shall we 
attribute such a state of things? To the Greek 
and Greco-Russian schism, and to it alone; this is 
the reply of history. 

To conquer that great obstacle to the conversion 
of Asia, Africa, and the isles depending on them, 
there remained the Church of the West, still so 
powerful by its unity and its means of conversion. 
The glorious reformers appeared, and by the fearful 
dissensions which they sowed, destroyed not only 
the Catholic faith in nearly the half of Europe, but 
shackled and paralyzed the labors of external pro- 
pagandism. In fact, do you not see, my friends, 
that infidel nations, knowing our religious discords, 
have good reason to say to our missionaries : , Be- 
fore coming to preach the Gospel to us, let the 
Europeans agree among themselves, and no longer 
make a religion of peace and charity a subject for 
hatred and sanguinary disputes. 

Besides the contempt for true Christianity with 
which the excesses of heresy have inspired the 
infidels, who is ignorant of the continual efforts 



Nineteenth Entertainment. 253 

of maritime Protestant nations to overthrow the 
conquests of Catholicity over pagan barbarism? 
Among a multitude of facts, I will cite only one. 
Who drew on Japan that fearful persecution which 
gave to the Church nearly two millions martyrs? 
History tells us that it was the English and the 
Dutch. Who in 1637 attacked the last thirty-seven 
thousand Christians of Arima, ranged around the 
cross and their prince's flag, and holding in check 
an army of 80,000 idolaters ? History tells us it 
was the Dutch artillery.* Finally, what is being 
done at present by the missionaries of the Bible 
religion? They go to found schools in infidel 
countries, to teach the idolaters to read in the Bible 
that the Pope is Antichrist, and that his mission- 
aries are the agents of the enemy of God and man. 

It is, then, manifest that Christianity has suffered 
'""finitely less from the fury of Nero than from the 
fuiy of heresy and schism for the last eight or 
nine centuries. 

Finally, Nero, to give himself the spectacle of a 
magnificent fire, caused the torch to be applied to 
the most beautiful quarters of Rome. But what 
was that fire, compared to the conflagrations en- 
kindled and fed for so long a time by the fanaticism 
of schism and heresy, conflagrations which have 
devoured so many men and so many masterpieces 
of every .kind ? 

And what did those fanatical incendiaries pro- 
pose to themselves in overturning Europe with 

* See Univ. History of the Church, by Rohrbacher, t. xxvi. 
book 88. 

' 22 



254 The People s Ark. 

the cry: Long live the Bible! Down with Popery? 
They wished to abolish the Mass, confession, fast, 
abstinence, the obligation of good works, the in- 
vocation of the saints, and prayer for the dead; 
they wished to melt the gold and silver plate of 
the churches, to burn the books, pictures, orna- 
ments and relics ; to erect edifices in which, after 
having sung some psalms, they listened to the 
discourse of their minister against the prostitute 
of Babylon, and the papist abominations, or a 
homily on the edifying dogma of Lutheran and 
Calvinistical predestination, a dogma which consists 
in believing that human liberty is a popish dream, 
and that men are only machines, whom God drives, 
according to His good pleasure, into heaven or 
hell, without any regard to their works. It is just 
to add, that modern Protestants have generally 
abandoned the wicked dogma of predestination to 
evil; but they remain faithful to their hatred against 
the Church of the Roman Antichrist, and it would be 
very possible for the old cry of, Down with Popery! 
to light new conflagrations. 

Am I wrong in saying to you, my friends, that 
among the most frightful enemies of the Christian 
religion and the human race, Nero is far from 
meriting the first place? 

MAYOR. 

No, certainly not. Had not Satan been the 
master of the glorious reformers, we should have 
a right to say to him : Descend from your fiery 
throne, and yield your place to the most furious 
enemies of God and man. It only remains to be 



Nineteenth Entertainment. 255 

known why the pagan Nero is so universally ab- 
horred, while the Christian Neros are still praised 
by the very persons who have suffered most from 
their fanatical destructions. That self-worshippers 
of every kind, whether Catholic or Protestant, 
should glorify in Luther and his colleagues, the 
conquerors of the liberty of thought, that is to say, 
the right to make a mockery of the only religion 
that causes them serious inquietude, is well and 
good. That the rulers of Protestant nations, be- 
coming popes and supreme judges of the religious 
affairs of their subjects, should rejoice in such a 
state of affairs, and praise those who have delivered 
them from papal tyranny, is very natural. That 
the ministers of the Bible-religion, richly rewarded 
for defending the system, should affect a great 
veneration for its authors, I can well understand ; 
but what I can with difficulty conceive, is the 
respect of so many honest Protestant Christians for 
those reformers of whose scandalous history they 
cannot be ignorant; what surprises me beyond 
everything, is the fanaticism of the popular masses 
for the defence of a reform which has made their 
condition so much worse. This reflection is sug- 
gested to me by the savage conduct of the English 
people, who, not satisfied with having dragged in 
the mire and delivered to the flames the images 
of the pope, the cardinals, the bishops, and all 
Catholic institutions, ask nothing less than the 
extermination of the restorers of the papacy. 

In a word, the horror attached to Nero's memory 
and the popularity of the murderers of Catholicity, 
this, sir, is what I find it difficult to understand. 



256 The Peoples Ark- 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Behold, sir, the reason of that difference. It is 
a long time since paganism and the divinity of the 
Caesars ceased to find in Europe either believers 
or apologists, but Protestantism is ever subsisting 
therein, and if its primitive dogmas, its confessions 
of faith no longer exist, save in history, its tradi- 
tions of hatred, its absurd prejudices against the 
Catholic Church are still vigorous. You yourself, 
sir, must have observed that the number of men 
interested in perpetuating that hatred and those 
prejudices is immense. 

Without speaking of the great school of writers 
who during three centuries have seemed to propose 
but one thing to themselves in their historical and 
literary labors — the hatred of the Catholic Church, 
and the apotheosis of its enemies — without speak- 
ing I say, of that school of shameless calumniators, 
who does not see in the influential classes of 
Protestant countries, a manifest interest of pride 
and cupidity in sustaining the liberties they have 
acquired by their glorious reform? 

First, an interest of pride. — To what have states- 
men and the class from which they are drawn, 
always aspired more or less ardently? To reli- 
gious autocracy, that is to say, the right to teach 
to the public a religion which binds its conscience 
without binding theirs, or prejudicing the pre- 
tended rights of their reason, that is to say, their 
passions. Now, such is the position which the 
Reformation has given to the higher classes, in 
which they are envied by all the self-worshippers 
of Catholic countries. How could you expect 



Nineteenth Eiitertainment. 257 

that the nobility and higher classes of Protest- 
antism would not be filled with a holy zeal against 
papal despotism ? 

Secondly, an interest of cupidity. — When by the 
union of the spiritual power with the political, they 
are master of the souls and bodies, of the religious 
beliefs and material interests of a people, is it not 
evident that they can plunder it, yet at the same 
time make it bless its plunderers? This is what 
happens in every country deprived by schism and 
heresy of the only religion which prevents the 
great from becoming tigers, and the lowly from 
degenerating into stupid slaves. This we see par- 
ticularly in England, where a miserable population 
of more than twelve million helots is not dis- 
contented at seeing thirty or forty thousand great 
lords possessing all the riches, and spending their 
lives in the splendors of luxury, while, at their 
very side, hunger devours in a single year a mil- 
lion of victims. Add to this, for England, the 
enormous revenues of the Church established by law. 

In fact, my friends, it is well that you should 
know that the English Protestant ministers, who 
for so long a time have raised and caused to rise 
throughout Europe, a cry against the avarice of 
the Roman court and the popish clergy, are un- 
doubtedly, the greatest cumulatists under the $un, 
the most devouring leeches that the demon of 
cupidity has ever applied to the muscles of a 
nation. The English publicists themselves have 
established by creditable researches and calcu- 
lations, that the Anglican clergy having only six 
and a half millions in the flock, possesses in itself 



258 The Peoples Ark. 

alone a revenue superior, by some millions, to the 
total revenue of all the Catholic and dissenting 
clergy, charged with the religious service of more 
than two million Christians. 

Is it not just that the happy prelates of the 
Established Church should cherish as a part of 
themselves, that system which has delivered the 
English from the frightful tyranny of Popery ? . . . . 
With a clergy and higher and lower classes so pow- 
erfully attached to Protestantism, we must not be 
surprised at the absurd veneration which this 
society still meets with among the masses, and 
even with some Christians of the higher classes. 
The latter, it is true, could easily find the truth of 
the sanctity of their reformers, and the abomina- 
tions of popery. Without consulting popish writ- 
ings, it would suffice them to run over the works 
of those holy reformers, and see the judgment 
they formed of one another. They would there 
find on every page, among other gentle terms, the 
epithets addressed to each other of, enraged fools , 
monsters of pride, lasciviousness and ignorance, im- 
pious and ignorant blaspliemers, sacrilegious buffoons, 
satanical corrupters of Scripture, satanized tongues, 
etc., etc. By studying the lives of those singular 
apostles they would see, that by those testimonies 
they only render justice to one another, and that 
their union for the destruction of popery was only 
a concert of the most abominable passions against 
the Church of Jesus Christ. 

But no ; those honest believers in Protestantism, 
who reproach the papists with their submission to 
Catholic teachings, find no difficulty in accepting, 



Nineteenth Entertainment. 259 

on the word of their ministers the most incredible 
calumnies against the Catholic Church and its two 
hundred millions of believers. An impostor of 
good family, a well-endowed clergyman of the 
Church established by the good virgin (!) Eliza- 
beth, can yet say from his pulpit to auditors of a 
certain class, that we are idolaters, adorers of a 
wafer, of the Virgin and the saints, and that the 
popish bishops and priests never travel without an 
escort of inquisitors and executioners, charged to 
torture and burn heretics.* 

* Among other proofs of the facility with which the English 
Protestant clergymen knowingly, and with extreme effrontery, 
calumniate the Catholic religion in the presence of a numerous 
auditory, we will cite the following extract from the corres- 
pondence of a French journal' on the subject of the savage 
manifestations with which the Brief of Pope Pius IX. for the 
reestablishment of the English hierarchy was received in 
London. 

" You know that on Nov. 5th there was a strong force of 
sermons against popery and the papists. I had heard one 
among others in which we were most vigorously treated as 
pagans, idolaters, etc., etc. The clergyman who spoke was 
really a gentleman, who had had the following conversation 
with one of my Catholic friends, a few weeks previously. 

" 'But tell me, do you sincerely and conscientiously believe 
that we adore the holy Virgin, the saints, etc.?' — ' No ; I do 
not believe it, and I should be foolish to believe it.' — ' But, 
then, why do you speak in the pulpit in the manner you so 
often do?" — ' What do you expect? AYe have always spoken 
thus to the people ; it pleases them, it attaches them to the 
Church ; it must be continued ' The day before yes- 
terday, I met a Protestant young lady, who related to me 
what follows : 

" 1 1 live with my two aunts ; yesterday they returned from 
church as pale as death. 0, aunt, aunt, what is the matter? 



2oo The People s Ark. 

When the worthy ministers of the Anglican 
Church can hold forth in such language to well- 
instructed classes, how could you expect that the 
lower classes, brutalized by ignorance and misery, 
whose whole religion consists in the hatred of 
popery, should conceive any doubt of what is told 
them by the great men of church and state, that 
is, that the Catholics are a troop of wicked animals, 
governed by the Roman Antichrist, and mitred 
monsters ? 

This, my friends, is what becomes of the popular 
masses, wherever the governing aristocracy have 
removed them from the authority of the Catholic 
Church, to subject them to a religion and clergy 
of their own liking. The lower classes in England, 
who have gained by the Anglican Reformation* 
only pauperism, and the most frightful servitude 
that has ever been imposed on man, do none the 
less cry out: Long live the Church of Elizabeth! 
Hail to the Protestant emancipation! and at a given 

Are you sick?' — 'What, my niece! you do not know it? 
You do not know that the Inquisition is about to return here 
from Rome? All the instruments of torture are en the way, 
and if the whole nation does not oppose their entrance into 
England, before a month we shall be all tortured and burnt 
alive!' — 'But, aunt, this is an idle tale.' — 'My niece, I have 
for some time perceived that you have a tendency to Roman- 
ism, and if the Inquisition arrives, you will become a papist; 
but as for us, we would rather die than become papists,' etc., 
etc."— (See L Univers, Nov. 17, 1850.) 

* One may form a good idea of the frightful moral and 
material condition to which the Protestant Reformation has 
reduced the masses in England, by reading Letters on the Pro- 
testant Reformation, by Cobbett, the English Protestant pub- 
licist. 



Nineteenth Entertainment. 261 

signal from their unworthy destroyers, we see them 
rush, with brutal fury, on the only religion that 
can remedy their evils, and restore to them that 
of which heresy has robbed them — their right to 
the heavenly inheritance, and a larger share in the 
terrestrial patrimony. 

Nothing is better calculated than such a spec- 
tacle, to cairse Catholic nations to feel the inesti- 
mable advantage of a priesthood independent of 
the civil power, and, at the same time, the necessity 
of that spiritual sovereignty of the successors of 
St. Peter, which can alone prevent the religion of 
Jesus Christ from becoming, in the hands of the 
ruling classes, an instrument of religious and polit- 
ical oppression. 

In the following entertainments I propose to 
offer to you, my friends, an historical view of the 
Papacy, and of what Divine Providence and Chris- 
tian ages have done to assure the independence of 
the sacerdotal ministry, charged with making the 
human race accept the perfect law of liberty* 

* St. James i. 25. 




TWENTIETH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Chaeactee of the Papacy — Its establishment in Home — Its 
connection with the empire become cheistian — reflec- 
TIONS ON THE OMNIPOTENT STATE. 

F the liberalists of philosophy, history and 
politics were not enemies to all conscientious 
study in matters of religion, they would, at 
least once in their lives, ask themselves the 
following question: What is, then, this government, 
religious, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman, which 
during the eighteen centuries that have intervened 
between the reign of the Caesar Nero and that of 
Mazzini, the Caesar of Young Italy, has not ceased 
to exercise, by the power of speech alone, a do- 
minion much more extensive than that of the 
ancient masters of the world? How does it happen 
that in the terrible combats of the Vicars of the 
Crucified Lamb with the most formidable poten- 
tates, the victory always remains with the former, 
and that the Roman Church erects superb cathe- 
drals over the ashes of its martyrs, while the 
shepherd's flocks browse over the abhorred tombs 
of the persecutors ? 

You understand, my friends, that this question 
is truly the most interesting that could be proposed 
262 



Twentieth Entertainment. 263 

to a philosopher, historian, or politician; but its 
examination is severely interdicted in that modern 
schooi which only opens history to corrupt it and 
make it say: The Papacy is the work of superstition 
and of the execrable clerical faction. 

If the progressionists who affect so much zeal 
for the universal civilization and fraternity of all 
nations, were not egotistical boasters, who are as 
fond of the inhabitants of the earth as of those of 
the moon, they would say to themselves: The 
papacy is the only power which, up to the present 
day,, has been able to unite in the same thoughts 
and affections an infinity of men of every nation, 
of every language, and to make them cherish one 
another as brethren; nay, more, as the members of 
the same body. If the work of civilization and 
universal fraternity is to be realized, it can be only 
by means of Catholicity. Then let us not combat 
it. There are, indeed, certain of its practices and 
institutions which displease us, but would it not 
be better that the inhabitants of Asia and Africa 
should go to Mass and Confession, rather than live 
under the good pleasure of the most infamous 
oppressors of body and soul ? Would it not be 
better to allow- the youth of both sexes the liberty 
of vowing celibacy in religious communities, than 
to see them become the victims of the horrible 
excesses of the Mussulmans? 

This, my friends, is what a sincere friend of 
civilization and humanity should say. 

But the most honest of our humanitarians does 
not blush to write, that in the comparison instituted 
between Catholic and Mahometan institutions h^ 



264 The People s Ark. 

has found the monastic state to clash with his intelli- 
gence and reason, that nothing can justify an insti- 
tution so contrary to nature, to the family and to 
society, while the Mussulman, seeing the idea of God 
in the thoughts of his brethren, bows dozun and 
respects. . . . This is the only tolerant people* 

If popular demagogues were not, as I have 
already proved to you, wicked sycophants, who 
flatter the public only that they may take every 
advantage of it, they could not but respect and 
love that spiritual sovereignty, so eminently demo- 
cratic, which, confided by the Redeemer of the 
popular masses to Peter, a poor fisherman, and 
rendered accessible to the most lowly conditions* 
has won all our liberties, and can alone defend 
them efficaciously against the despotism of ab- 
solute monarchies and of parliamentary bodies, 
whether monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical. 

But you, my friends, have already a sufficiently 
just idea of the Catholic Church and the progres- 
sionists of every kind, to understand, that what- 
ever may be their colors, they will always unite 
in acting for the overthrow of Catholic unity. 
What more proper to redouble your affection for 
the Holy See, than the rage which it excites in all 
tyrants, whether they be crowned heads, ministers 
of state, or public demagogues? 

Let us begin our study on the origin and pro- 
gress of that remarkable sovereignty, the only one 
in the world on whose territory the sun has never 

* See M. de Lamartine, Voyage en Orient, t. ii., p. 148, 

188. 



Twentieth Entertainment. 2 C 5 

set during eighteen hundred years. Let us first 
see in what place Peter, established by the Divine 
Master visible chief of that immense empire and 
charged to preside over its conquest, had to erect 
his standard, and establish his head-quarters. 

Was it in Jerusalem? No, for the Master had 
said ; Before the end of this generation , Jerusalem 
shall be destroyed, and there shall not remain of it 
a stone upon a stone. This was literally fulfilled 
thirty-four years later. 

After having overrun Judea, the principal cities 
of Asia Minor, and founded the church of Antioch, 
the capital of the East, where he gave the name 
of Christian to the citizens of the new society,* 
Peter took the route to Rome, about the year 42 
of our era. 

Rome and its people owed their origin and 
name to Romulus, the head of a band of brigands, 
born of a princess of Alba and an unknown father. 
This small nation, which, at the death of its 
founder, 715 A. C, numbered only three thousand 
foot and three hundred horse, had become so 
powerful at the time of our Saviour, as out of all 
other empires to form only one. 

How can we explain that prodigious dominion ? 
That we may not be unreasonable, it is necessary 
that w r e hold to the explanation given by the 
prophet Daniel to Nabuchodonozor, six centuries 
before Jesus Christ. Interpreting the dream of 
the king of Babylon relative to the four great 
empires which should precede the universal em- 



* Acts of the Apostles, xi. 26, 

23 



266 The Peoples Ark. 

pire of the Messiah, Daniel designated to him 
the Roman Empire by these words : There shall 
be a fourth empire strong as iron. . . . ; for as iron 
breaketh into pieces and subdueth all things, so 
shall that break and destroy all that will oppose it, 
until the time in which the stone, that you have 
seen breaking that empire, shall become a great 
mountain which shall fill the whole earth.* 

What, then, were the Romans ? They were the 
pioneers of the Christian army, charged to prepare 
the way for it. Therefore was no mountain so 
high, no forest so thick, no river or arm of the sea 
so great as to stop their march, no wall so strong 
as to blunt their weapons. 

In laying the foundations of Rome, Romulus 
and his followers prepared the throne of the divine 
ravishers of souls, who in giving themselves to be 
immolated like their Divine Master, should one 
day, from the height of the Vatican, shed on the 
universe more temporal and spiritual favors than 
the Romans had caused tears and blood to be 
shed therein. 

Rome having become the capital of all errors, 
of all despotisms — the principal organ of Catholic 
truth, the mother of all liberty, was bound to carry 
the war thither, and strike a death-blow to the 
empire of Satan. Once known there, Christian 
faith could not fail to resound throughout the 
universe, for, " what nation could then be ignorant 
of that which Rome had learned ?"t 

* Dan. ii. 44, 45. 

f Words of Pope St. Leo the Great. — Sermon on the Feast 
of St. Peter. 



Twentieth Entertainment. 267 

After a first evangelization, fruitful enough, as 
we can judge from the conclusion of his First 
Epistle to the Christians of Asia, St. Peter was 
expelled from Rome with the Jews. He employed 
the time of his exile in visiting the churches of the 
East, of his dear Antioch, and finally in the cele- 
bration of the Council at Jerusalem. He soon 
returned to Rome with fresh ardor; whither he 
was either preceded or followed by his colleague, 
St. Paul, whose immense labors had already pro- 
cured for him the title of " Doctor of Nations." 
Their conquests there w T ere so rapid that they 
brought forth saints in the very court of Nero. 
The persecution burst, and the two apostles were 
pursued. 

Tradition says that St. Peter, yielding to the 
prayers of the faithful, left; but at the place where 
still can be seen the church called Quo vadis, 
(whither goest thou ?) Jesus Christ appeared to 
him, journeying towards the city. "Where art 
thou going, Lord ?" asked the apostle. " I am 
going to Rome to be crucified anew." The dis- 
ciple understood that he was bound to imitate his 
Master, and that if Christ had won on the cross 
His title of Saviour of the human race, and 
Supreme Judge of the living and the dead, His 
vicar should also pay the price of his blood for 
the apostolical sovereignty. He returned, then, 
to Rome, and some time after, came forth from 
the Mamertine Prison, where he had baptized his 
guards, to expire on the cross, the same day that 
his colleague St. Paul was decapitated,, at some 
distance from Rome on the Ostian road. This 



268 The Peoples Ark. 

was the 29th of June, of the twelfth year of the reign 
of Nero, the thirty seventh after the Ascension of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sixty-sixth of our era. 
You may, perhaps, have read, my friends, in 
those little tracts and pamphlets so often distributed 
by Protestants, that the sojourn and death of St. 
Peter in Rome is a fable. You have too much 
good sense not to destroy those scraps, written by 
men foolish or imprudent enough to give the lie, 
not only to the whole Catholic world, but also to 
all heretical and schismatical sects, both past and 
present, not one of which has ever contested the 
fact of the apostolate and martyrdom in Rome of 
Sts. Peter and Paul. All Protestant writers of any 
repute have recognized the truth of this history, 
and many of them have even learnedly demon- 
strated it, among others, Pearson, the celebrated 
Anglican bishop of Chester. It can be denied 
only by the screech-owls of party, whose only 
science is to know how to heap insult and injury 
on the popes and the Catholics. 

St. Peter being gone to receive the crown of 
glory, his throne passed to his successors as a right 
to martyrdom, until the year 314, when by the 
conversion of Constantine, St. Sylvester I., the 
thirty-second Pope, could peaceably occupy the 
Holy See for more than twenty years. Then began 
for the Church a new existence. From a religious 
society proscribed by the civil society, up to that 
time pagan, it became naturally the soul and the 
directing principle of the Christian society which 
it had created by the force of its labors and suf- 
ferings. 



Twentieth Entertainment. 269 

The majority of the subjects of the empire, and 
the emperor himself, being Christian, that is to 
say, adoring Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of 
God, God Himself, absolute Master and Judge of 
the living and the dead, King of kings, and Lord 
of lords, must there not have succeeded a great 
and total transformation in the constitution and 
laws of civil society? Now, in the new order 
of things consecrated by the triumph of the evan- 
gelical law, what must have been the position of 
the priesthood, and particularly of its chief, the 
Vicar of Jesus Christ ? 

That pastor of pastors, whose spiritual sove- 
reignty already extended far beyond the limits of 
the Roman empire; that successor of Peter, whom 
all were bound to consider, and did really consider 
as the teacher and common father of all the faith- 
ful, from the emperor even to the lowest baptized 
slave — could you well believe, my friends, that he 
could accept the place of First Almoner to his 
Imperial Majesty, charged to offer holy water to 
him, to say Mass for him, and receive his orders 
for the good religious service of his beloved sub- 
jects ? 

No, certainly not. The Church established by 
the blood of Calvary had not braved during three 
centuries the power and fury of the forty Caesars, 
to apostatize at the feet of the first Christian 
emperor, and say to him: Now that you adore 
Jesus Christ, you can make his religion suit your 
convenience, and constitute the Pope the head of 
the administration of religious affairs. 

To what did the emperor engage himself in 
23* 



270 The Peoples Ark. 

becoming Christian ? To live as a true child of 
God and of the Church, to submit like the very- 
lowest Christian, to the teaching and judgment of 
the Church in matters of faith, morals, and general 
discipline. And in case of scandalous violation 
of his duties as a Christian, and obstinate resist- 
ance to the warnings of religious authority, he was 
recognized as subject, like every one else, to spirit- 
ual penalties, and to excommunication, the most 
terrible of all. 

I do not think, my friends, that any instructed 
Catholic dare contest these principles, and pretend 
that Jesus Christ has made an exception in favor 
of sovereigns in this fundamental article of the 
religious charter: He that will not hear the Church 
let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.* 

That princes and their courtiers find very dis- 
tasteful the admonitions and corrections of the 
Church, we can well understand. But in founding 
His Church, Jesus Christ consulted less the desires 
of princes than the salvation of the human race. 
Religion has no longer the character of a divine 
law, if she does not bind alike the conscience of 
the great and the lowly ; and you know, as well as 
I, that among all consciences, those which it is 
most important to submit to God, are precisely 
those of sovereigns. Our liberty of conscience, 
and all our civil and political liberties, are founded 
on religious equality, which makes all Catholics as 
one common people in religion, all subject to the 
same general laws. Yes, every one, even the pope 

* St. Matth. xviii. 17. 



Twentieth Entertainment. 27 r 

and the bishops, recognize themselves as personally 
bound, not only by their dogmatic decrees in 
matters of faith and morals, but by general laws 
and discipline ; for those laws are dictated to them 
by the spirit of the Gospel ; — now who is more 
bound by the spirit of the Gospel than the pope 
and the bishops ? 

Personally subject to all the duties of the Chris- 
tian, to what did Constantine and his successors 
bind themselves yet more in their quality of 
Catholic princes ? They engaged themselves, first, 
to leave to the Church full liberty to labor in her 
great mission of saving souls, and of taking the 
means which she judged most proper to preserve 
her spiritual conquests, and carry them even to the 
extremities of the world. Secondly, to favor the 
propagation of the Gospel, not by taking the 
initiative themselves, but in gently removing, ac- 
cording to their power, the obstacles which should 
be opposed to that work, the most dear to the 
heart of Jesus Christ and of every true Catholic. 

These, my friends, are the general duties of the 
Catholic sovereign, such as the Christian conscience 
has always understood them, such as it shall ever 
understand them ; there is nothing in this meta- 
physical; all is Christian common sense. 

Let us now see to what Constantine obliged 
himself before God and men, towards the Christian 
majority of the empire, in regard to the manner of 
governing in temporal matters. Could he say : 
Being the successor of the ancient Caesars, whose 
good pleasure was made the sole law and rule, I 
intend to dispose sovereignly, as they did, of your 



272 The Peoples Ark. 

property and lives, w thout allowing any one to 
find fault with me for it? — No, certainly not; such 
a proposition would have filled every Christian with 
horror, and, with one voice, they would have said: 
You desire then to reerect the idol of the empire, 
tvhose overthrow cost so many prodigies wrought 
by our Divine Master who is in heaven, and so 
much of His disciples' blood! Well, if this is your 
will, sooner than submit to it, we will do like our 
fathers ; we will die, until such time as it shall 
please Heaven to punish your apostasy, and send 
you to dwell w 7 ith other persecutors. 

The evangelical law for which they had so long 
combated was so deeply engraven in every mind, 
that every one knew what to hold in regard to the 
rights of the state. The Gospel defines the sove- 
reign as " the minister of God, established to protect 
the good, armed with the sword to repress evil." 
And it is very clear that the Gospel does not make 
the Christian prince absolute judge of the good or 
evil works of his subjects, but that it obliges him 
to consult that law which has given us the know- 
ledge of good and evil. 

The Gospel says again : Render to Caesar what 
belongs to Caesar; — yes, but there, as elsewhere, 
the Gospel speaks of the tribute necessary to the 
service of the state. It tells us by the mouth of 
St. Paul: " Render therefore to all their dues: 
tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom 
custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."* 
As to the laws of the prince or the state, the 

* Rom. xiii. 7. 



Twentieth Entertainment. 273 

Gospel tells us, that we owe them an entire sub- 
mission, whenever they contain nothing contrary 
to the religious law, but that, in the contrary case, 
we must reply, even unto death, as did the apostles 
and martyrs : " Better to obey God than man." 
To refuse submission to an impious law, is not 
a revolt against the prince, it is obedience to the 
Prince of princes. If we cowardly submit to it, we 
render ourselves guilty of treason before God, and 
make a very bad calculation, for He whose word 
shall never pass away, has said : " Fear not those 
who kill the body and cannot kill the soul, but 
rather fear Him who can destroy both body and 
soul into hell."* 

This was the religious and political alphabet of 
the first Christians ; by holding nothing dearer, 
not even their life, they overthrew the most fright- 
ful civil and religious despotism. And this alpha- 
bet must now be taught to Christian nations more 
than ever, for our free-thinkers are everywhere 
making the most incredible efforts for the reestab- 
lishment of these two principles of atheistical 
paganism : The state can do everything. Religion 
must remain apart from politics, and must preach 
only submission to the laws. What do you think 
of these principles, Mr. Mayor? 

MAYOR. 

It seems to me that the first article of the faith 
of the church of the socialists, is, / believe in the 
omnipotent state \ which will make of the earth a 

* St. Matth. x. 28. 



274 The People s Ark. 

paradise, and of idlers so many saints. As I have 
not the honor of belonging to it, I am very much 
of the opinion that the mortals who govern us 
should leave to God the omnipotence, and do all 
that is in their power to extricate us from the 
frightful confusion into which we have been thrown 
by inventors of laws and systems of government; 
men who, until now, have been all-powerful only 
in their pretensions, in the art of idle talking, and 
in plundering the public. 

As to the other principle, that religion must 
not mix with politics or the government, and must 
content itself with preaching submission to the 
laws of the state, this is, it seems to me, to make 
a very strange division. It follows from this, that 
our souls must be regulated according to the laws 
of God, and that our bodies, with our temporal 
interests, must remain under the power of the devil 
and his co-laborers ; for wherever God does not 
direct, Satan governs. This is to say again, that 
religion was made for the people and not for the 
great. But if religion is very necessary to the 
people, I believe it to be ten times more necessary 
to the great; for while an atheist of the poorer 
classes can, at the most, only steal, murder a few 
individuals, or set fire to a village, atheists in fine 
clothes, or those who wield the pen, can pillage, 
poison and assassinate whole nations, enkindle fires 
in the greatest states. As for the rest, we know 
what those gentlemen gain by preaching to the 
people contempt of religion. The cry: Down with 
the priests ! is everywhere soon succeeded by the 
cry: Down with the noble and the wealthy! 



Twentieth Entertainment. 275 

Yes, sir, these principles : The government can 
do everything, and religion has nothing to say to 
it, — are the invention of brigands, who would wish 
that religion should shut the mouths of the people 
and bind their hands, while they destroy them. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

I thank you, sir, for having done such ample 
justice to the two principles of political atheism. 
Let us now see the means to be taken to prevent 
the ministers of religion and their people from 
falling under the hand of the destroyers. 





TWENTY-FIRST ENTERTAINMENT. 

Temporal dominion of the Popes — Its origin — Its necessity 

— Napoleon's sentiments — Answer to difficulties. 

E have said that the Roman Pontiff, in order 
to fill the sublime functions of spiritual 
father of all the Christians of the empire 
and of the world, must have enjoyed great 
liberty. Besides that he was soon under the 
necessity of struggling against the emperors for 
the defence of the faith and constitution of the 
Church, do you not understand, my friends, that 
his subjection to Caesar would have deprived him 
of all influence over those foreign princes and 
nations, almost continually at war with the empire? 
Now, what was the first condition of liberty for 
the popes ? It was to have the means of support 
for themselves, and those who aided them in the 
spiritual government of the universe. Obliged to 
employ in that immense work, not angels, but 
souls dwelling in bodies, it was necessary that 
they should assure to those bodies, food, clothing, 
lodging, the expenses of travelling, and of admin- 
istration. Up to that time those expenses had 
been defrayed by collections, offerings, and, in the 
intervals between persecutions, even by donations 
276 



Twenty-First Entertainment. 277 

of land, as is proved by an edict of Constan- 
ts ne for the restitution of property taken from the 
churches. 

The cross having come to render sacred the 
right of property, and even to confer it on slaves, 
was it not very just that the Church, to whom 
that benefit was due, should enjoy the right of 
property, and so much the more, that, by their 
destination, ecclesiastical properties were then, as 
they are still, the most popular of all ? In effect, 
from the farthest antiquity the Church has always 
divided her revenue into three parts; the first, for 
the service of her altars ; the second, for the sup- 
port of her ministers, taken from every class, but 
particularly from the people; the third, for the 
relief of the poor. 

The Church which then inherited the legacies 
of paganism, found everywhere, but particularly in 
Rome, an infinity of poor, but not the least chari- 
table foundation. Paganism, which was the adora- 
tion of all vices, excelled in the art of making 
people poor, but when their number became incon- 
venient, they were conducted to a seaport, and, 
after being forced on board old and rickety ves- 
sels, were driven out to perish in the sea. This 
had been done by the Emperor Galerius, one 
of the last and most furious persecutors of the 
Church. 

This, I think, is sufficient to justify the donations 
made by Constantine and the faithful to all the 
churches, but particularly to that of Rome. Many 
Protestants and all Catholic renegades who labor 
to protestantize us, vie in declaiming against those 
24 



278 The Peoples Ark. 

bigoted liberalities, and accuse the Church of 
having renounced the poverty of Jesus Christ and 
her first pontiffs. We suppose that to those gen- 
tlemen nothing would be so beautiful as to see 
a priesthood of beggars, who, instead of giving 
alms, should themselves be obliged to beg, and be 
liable to be incarcerated for vagrancy and pauper- 
ism. Catholic nations have thought otherwise; 
they have always considered as public benefactors 
those who founded and endowed churches, and as 
sacrilegious robbers those who despoiled them. 

But, in order to assure the independence of 
their spiritual chief, did Catholic nations think it 
sufficient that he should not suffer from hunger? 
Did not their religious, and even their material 
interests, require that he should, as far as possible, 
be removed from the influence of the Caesar ? On 
this subject let us hear the words of a man of 
genius, who cannot be suspected of too much de- 
votedness to the popes, words handed down to us 
by an historian still less to be suspected. 

When, in 1801, there was question of officially 
reestablishing the Catholic religion in France, Na- 
poleon had to contend against all the free-thinkers 
who were in office, and particularly in the Council 
of State. At a time when, of the forty thousand 
parishes that composed the republic, thirty-two 
thousand two hundred and fourteen had already, 
of their own accord, reopened their churches, and 
four thousand five hundred and seventy-one others 
were preparing to do so, those honest atheists 
wished the all-powerful Consul to oppose the super- 
stition of France, and desired that, as a religion 



Twenty- First Entertainment. 279 

was necessary to the canaille, he should impose on 
them Protestantism, of which he might be the head; 
like all other Protestant princes. After having 
reproved those odious stupidities, Napoleon spoke 
of the Pope, with whom they were trying to 
frighten him, and said : 

"The institution which maintains the unity of 
the faith, that is to say, the Pope, the guardian of 
Catholic unity, is an admirable institution. This 
Chief is reproached with being a foreign sovereign; 
he is, in fact, foreign, and we must thank heaven 
for it. What! could we imagine that in the same 
country there should be such a government beside 
that of the state? United to the government, that 
authority would become the despotism of the Sul- 
tans; separated from, or perhaps hostile to it, it 
would produce a fearful, an intolerable rivalry. 
The Pope is out of Paris, and this is very well; he 
is neither in Madrid nor Vienna, and this is why we 
support his spiritual authority. The same can be 
said in Madrid and Vienna. Can we believe that 
if he were in Paris, the Viennese or the Spaniards 
would consent to receive his decisions? Every 
one is glad that he lives outside his domain, and 
that while living away from his, he does not dwell 
in that of his rivals, that he resides in that ancient 
Rome, independent of the emperors of Germany, 
independent of the kings of France or the kings 
of Spain, holding the balance between Catholic 
sovereigns, leaning always a little towards the 
strongest, but rising as soon as the strongest be- 
comes an oppressor. This has been the work of 
centuries, and it has been well done. For the 



280 The Peoples Ark. 

government of souls, it is the best, the most bene- 
ficent institution that could be imagined."* 

See, my friends, what, in the calm of reason, 
were the opinions of the greatest political and 
military genius of modern times; and when, later, 
ambition had turned his head, you know how 
cruelly he expiated the dethronement and captivity 
of Pius VII. 

Well, that political independence of the Pope, 
which was, is, and ever shall be in the wishes and 
necessities of the Catholic universe, was prepared 
by God from the accession of Constantine. After 
a very short stay in Rome, the idea occurred to 
that prince to build Constantinople, and there he 
established himself in the year 330. Later, when 
the empire was divided, the Emperors of the West 
resided at Milan or Ravenna, in preference to 
Rome, so plainly did the general opinion say 
to them, that their throne figured badly by the 
side of that of St. Peter. 

The greater number of those emperors, down to 
the dethronement of Augustulus by Odoacer in 
476, having by their feebleness and bestial manners 
drawn on themselves the contempt of their subjects 
and of barbarians, it naturally came to pass that 
Rome and Italy had recourse to the popes, as their 
only refuge in those disastrous times. 

Thus, in 452, when Attila, after having ravaged 
Gaul and two-thirds of Italy, prepared to make 
Rome a heap of ruins, the Emperor Valentinian III., 



* History of the Consulate and the Empire. By M. Thiers, 
Book xii. 



Twenty-First Entertainment. 281 

his generals, patricians and people, trembling with 
fear, could find only the Pope St, Leo, who would 
go to meet him who called himself, with so much 
reason, "The Scourge of God." The Pontiff's words 
really obtained from the terrible idolater what 
could not have been won by ten Roman legions. 

Three years later, when Valentinian III., who 
amused himself with criminal pleasures while the 
Barbarians were desolating the empire on all sides, 
had been massacred, and Rome delivered by his 
wife to Genseric, the Vandal king, it was again St. 
Leo, who, in a great measure, disarmed the cruelty 
of the most furious enemy of the Roman name. 

Will it be said that the popes cunningly em- 
ployed their influence, and the services rendered 
by them, in order to attain to a temporal throne ? 
Nothing could be more opposed to all historical 
monuments. After the fall of the Western Empire, 
the popes incessantly conjured the Eastern em- 
perors to undertake the defence of Italy, so horri- 
bly devastated by the Barbarians. 

Finally, in 752, that is, two centuries after the 
emperors of Constantinople, devoting themselves, 
some to the pursuit of filthy pleasures, others to 
the reconstructing of the religion of Jesus Christ, 
had ceased to occupy themselves with Italy as 
little as if it did not exist, we see Pope Stephen II. 
invoking the aid of Pepin, the French king and 
father of the immortal Charlemagne, against the 
horrible devastations of Astolphus, king of the 
Lombards. Pepin, after some ineffectual remon- 
strances, crossed the mountains at the head of an 
army, obliged Astolphus to return what he had 
24* 



282 The Peoples Ark. 

taken from the patrimony of St. Peter, and to that 
patrimon} r , which already comprised the city of 
Rome, its dependencies and vast domains, he 
added, by a solemn donation, the twenty-two cities 
of the Exarchate of Ravenna, which he had re- 
conquered from the tyrant. Charlemagne, in 774, 
flew to the succor of Pope Adrian, again oppressed 
by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, whom he 
made prisoner, united the Lombard crown to his, 
confirmed the donation made by his father, added 
much thereto, and thus put the final seal to the 
pontifical monarchy, the most pure in its origin, 
and that which, even according to the testimony of 
the best Protestant writers, saved the society of 
the Middle Ages ; that which is still the most neces- 
sary to the peace of Europe, according to the con- 
firmed judgment of the most sensible politicians. 

Such is not, I am sure, my friends, the idea 
which modern demagogues have given you of the 
temporal crown of the Pope, which they have at 
last succeeded in placing on the head of their 
absolute king. Instead of Pius IX. repeating to 
the universe by his words and his virtues, the law 
of justice and charity, which binds sovereigns as 
much as subjects, those gentlemen would have as 
the head of Young Italy, Mazzini, giving to all 
the revolutionists of Europe the signal for pillage 
and proscription. 

Not being able to answer in detail the numerous 
objections that have, in these latter days, been 
urged against the temporal dominion of the popes, 
I pray you, gentlemen, to indicate to me those that 
have made the greatest impression on your minds. 



Twenty- First Entertainment. 283 

TEACHER. 

In the declamations with which we have been 
deafened since the war against the Roman Repub- 
lic of Mazzini, the greatest weight seems to have 
been attached to four points : first, the gospel, par- 
ticularly the words, My kingdom is not of this world: 
secondly, the right of the Romans to govern them- 
selves after their own fashion ; thirdly, the abuses 
of the Pontifical government; fourthly, the con- 
tinual altercations of the pope with the temporal 
powers, for the preservation of his domain and the 
ecclesiastical property. 

It is asked why the pope is so tenacious of his 
royal power, and if he would not do better to 
imtate Jesus Christ, who, though Master of the 
universe, wished not to have a place whereon He 
could rest His head. Is not the charge of govern- 
ing the immense empire of souls great enough, 
difficult enough in itself? and by adding to it that 
of the administration of a state, is not the pope 
placed in the impossibility of providing adequately 
for the spiritual good of the Church, and the tem- 
poral good of his subjects ? Hence arise crying 
abuses, and the complaints of the Romans, de- 
prived of their political rights. To the union of 
these two powers are also attributed the scandal- 
ous struggle of the papacy against the empire in 
the Middle Ages, and the abuse of excommunica- 
tion, which has ended in producing contempt for 
these two powers and for spiritual arms. Such, 
sir, are the principal objections now current, and 
they have made impression on even well-disposed 
minds. 



284 The Peoples Ark. 

PLATO PUNCH INELLO. 

As I have answered to the first three objections 
in a former work,* I shall now give but a brief 
summary. 

First. If it were necessary that the pope should 
represent in everything the life of the Divine 
Saviour, it would then be necessary that, instead 
of governing the Church, he should devote himself 
to preaching in cities, towns, and villages, and, at 
the end of the third year, expire on a cross. 

My kingdom is not of this world. What is the 
meaning of this reply of Jesus Christ to Pilate's 
question, Art thou the King of the Jews ? It signi- 
fies that the Son of God had not descended from 
heaven to reestablish the temporal throne of David 
and sit thereon. To conclude that by those words 
Jesus Christ interdicted the heads of His church 
from occupying, in the course of time, a temporal 
throne necessary to the free exercise of their 
spiritual power, is pure nonsense. 

Secondly. Without doubt the charge of watch- 
ing over the progress of thousands of dioceses 
disseminated throughout the globe, would be 
sufficient for the most active pope, but first find 
him a place where he could fulfil this charge, at 
a distance from every influence that could be 
suspected by the governments with which he must 
treat; and, yet more, provide him with the funds 
necessary for his administration, the vastest in 
extent that has ever been seen. 

I have heard well-disposed persons, who believe 

* Beveil du Peuple. Lesson xiii. 



Twenty- First Entertainment. 285 

that all might be conciliated by limiting the 
domain of the pope to the city of Rome, the port 
of Civita-Vecchia, and the small territory that 
unites them. As to the expenses of the adminis- 
tration, they might be provided for, say they, by 
the contributions of Catholic states. This is an 
after-dinner-speech, that is all. 

A pope, who from his windows could hear the 
Qui vive of Austrian, Neapolitan, or Piedmontese 
sentinels, might, perhaps, be able to go to the 
cabinets of Austria, Naples, or Piedmont; but I 
doubt very much if that would be agreeable to the 
true Catholics of those nations, and 1 am very 
sure, that it would not at all suit the French, the 
Belgians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Irish, or Ameri- 
cans, etc. 

A pope paid by governments, which, at the first 
remonstrance, could deprive him of that salary^ is 
not at all the Catholics' idea. To them nothing 
is so acceptable as that which has been the work of 
centuries and has been so well done, according to 
Napoleon's expression. Honor, then, to those 
French soldiers, who in 1849 went to defend 
against bandits and plunderers the work wrought 
by time, and by their fathers of the eighth century, 
and to repair the scandals of February 1798 and 
July 1809. 

Thirdly. They speak of the abuses produced in 
the Papal states by the union of the two powers 
in the same person. But who are they who 
exclaim most vehemently against those abuses? 
They are honorable Roman nobles, lawyers, and 
citizens, who as soon as masters of those states, 



286 The Peoples Ark. 

have spread therein shame, ruin, and devastation, 
and delivered them to the power of the most con- 
temptible revolutionists of Europe. 

You tell me that foreign governments have 
themselves solicited the reform of those abuses. 
Yes, all our liberal governments of the past and 
the present, have complained of the Pontifical 
government, and they have had great reason. 

The pope had no Chambers to discuss, during 
eight months of the year, points of liberty and 
economy, and in the meantime, to double and 
treble the public burdens and charges. With the 
small revenues of a small state, he found means 
adequate to the administration of the Catholic 
universe, to the progress of the Church in the five 
parts of the globe, and to preserve to his capital 
the reputation of a city of marvels, the paradise 
of artists, and of the fine arts, the asylum open to 
all the unfortunates, to all the fallen or persecuted 
great ones. They, on the contrary, knew only 
how to plunge themselves into debt, to ruin their 
people morally and materially, and to open under 
our feet the abyss of revolutions. How could 
they regard the temporal administration of the 
popes other than as a censure of their own ? Cer- 
tainly, I do not pretend to say that the papal 
government is free from all abuse. Where is there 
a perfect government ? I shall not, I think, be 
referred to the constitutional government, which, 
even by Italy's experience of it, is now well known 
to be the best opportunity to proud, rapacious, and 
prating demagogues, to destroy with impunity and 
in their very foundations, the religion, morality, 



Twenty-First Entertainment. 287 

public liberty, finances, and moral and material 
well-being of a state, until the time when those 
preyers on the public vitals shall give place to the 
slaughterers of humanity, and substitute the scaf- 
fold for the tribunal. That the moderate revolu- 
tionists of Italy and elsewhere, should be anxious 
to subject the pope to a constitutional charter 
which would permit some lawyers to arrange the 
law for him, and make an end with one blow, of 
the government of the Church and State, by a 
refusal of subsidies, can be well understood, but 
it could never give pleasure either to the Catholic 
world, or the true Roman people. The latter 
showed what they thought of the Pontifical govern- 
ment when they celebrated its restoration in 1850, 
by rejoicings the most cordial, the most sponta- 
neous that have ever been seen. 

Among many advantages of which I have spoken 
elsewhere, the Roman people has that of having 
always at its head an enlightened, virtuous, and 
Christian prince, obliged to draw from the gospel 
his rule of conduct, and to reflect often on the 
terrible account he shall have to render of his sub- 
lime functions of priest and king. This guarantee 
is, after all, the best. Such a sovereign may not, 
perhaps, be able to cover the seas with his fleets, 
nor fill his ports with the riches of the universe, 
but there shall not be seen, as in liberal and 
wealthy England, one-fifth of his subjects a prey 
to hunger, or a million of men swept away by star- 
vation in one single year. 

In fine, my friends, whatever may be the incon- 
veniences of the pope's temporal government, they 



288 The Peoples Ark. 

will never equal the frightful inconveniences that 
would result from giving, as the guardian of the 
unity of faith and of religious liberty, the sole mother 
of all liberty, a pope, politically subject to one or 
many powers. I have shown you, and it is as clear 
as the sun at noon-day, that such a pope would be 
acceptable to no one. He would not suit the sub- 
jects of the government that ruled the pope; for 
every Catholic is extremely anxious that the direc- 
tor of his soul should not take the orders of Caesar. 
That such a pope would be suspected by other 
powers and their subjects, we need not say. Finally, 
when Pius IX. was in Gaeta, was it not said that 
he was ruled by the court of Naples, although 
King Ferdinand took the most minute and most 
delicate precautions to avoid giving any pretext 
for such a rumor ? 

The last objection relative to the contests of the 
popes with the emperors and other sovereigns ot 
the Middle Ages, requires an answer more in detail; 
let us refer it, my friends, to the following enter- 
tainment. 




TWENTY-SECOND ENTERTAINMENT. 



Cause of the contests between the Holy See and the 
ancient governments — pretended abuse of excommunica- 
TION — End and consequences of religious spoliation — 
Value of the reproaches addressed to the clergy. 

^NE is deceived in all and everything, my 
friends, when he assigns the temporal do- 
minion of the popes as the cause of the 
struggles between the priesthood and the 
empire. On the contrary, the necessity for the 
Catholic universe to have a head spiritually inde- 
pendent of crowns, and consequently wearing a 
crown, is most clearly proved by the history of 
those dissensions. 

What, in effect, was wanted by those honest 
German emperors against whom Gregory VII. and 
his successors struggled so courageously, and at 
the risk of their lives ? They wished to give 
Europe a new religion and a Church after their 
own fancy. They arrogated to themselves the 
right to sell bishoprics, archbishoprics, and abbeys, 
to the accomplices of their debaucheries and their 
oppressions of their people. They pretended, above 
all, to the right of making the popes. The em- 
peror Henry IV., had, among other imperial fancies, 
that of wishing to change his wife at every turn, 
25 289 



290 The People's Ark. 

and to effect this, he employed means too horrible 
to be mentioned, which at length forced his son, 
Conrad, already elected king, to wage war against 
him. Let any one read the history of that mon- 
ster and of Gregory VII. , written some years ago 
by the Protestant Voigt, and he will see whether 
it was possible for the pope to display more pa- 
tience towards a sovereign, who, by his incredible 
excesses, had arrayed against him all the members 
of his family, and all the honest subjects of the 
empire. 

To understand the conduct of the popes of the 
Middle Ages towards crowned heads, it would be 
necessary to know one thing: — all the Christian 
peoples of those times of ignorance, as they are 
called, a little more intelligent than we in matters 
of order and liberty, had a constitution, of which 
the first article was: "That sovereign, who by his 
wicked attempts against faith and morals, shall 
incur papal excommunication, shall have one year 
in which to amend and procure absolution ; this 
time of trial being elapsed, the States-general shall 
provide for his removal." That public right, agreed 
and sworn to by the sovereigns themselves at thejr 
coronation, did, without doubt, give room to some 
abuses ; but all the great publicists of Germany, 
Italy, France, Spain, and England, whether Protes- 
tant or Catholic, have united in saying : Without 
this public right, placed under the protection of the 
popes, Europe would never have become civilized, 
and before the twelfth century its barbarism would 
have given place to Mahometan barbarism. 

In the sixteenth century, when the Church was 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 291 

violently abolished in more than one-third of 
Europe, the Catholic sovereigns, envying the ab- 
solutism of Protestant princes, shook off the yoke 
of that public right which was such a restraint on 
their passions and those of their courtiers and 
mistresses. Not only did they wish no more of the 
pope's control and paternal intervention in political 
affairs, but they undertook to exclude him from 
ecclesiastical government, in making themselves 
the rulers of the Church in their respective states. 
What resulted from this, for themselves and their 
people ? As it is written in the book of life, that 
we are all subjects of the divine law, and that he 
who despises it, is delivered to the government of 
beasts,* so dynasties have freed themselves from 
Catholic restraint only to fall under the brutalizing 
yoke of courtiers and courtesans. They have been 
led by them from folly to folly, from turpitude to 
turpitude, until some have been smothered in filth, 
others delivered to the executioner; some have 
been expelled, others chained by constitutions and 
changed into ridiculous mummies. Their great 
power has fallen to the share of despotical assem- 
blies, which have achieved the ruin of states, under 
cover of moral and material reform. 

No, certainly, my friends, if any one has a right 
to laugh at the constitutions of the Middle Ages, 
which placed national liberties under the protection 
of the guardian of the evangelical charter, it is not 
the champion of absolute monarchy, the mother 
of disastrous revolutions; it is not the government 

* Psalm xxxi. 9. — xlviii. 13. 



292 The People s Ark. 

of barristers, which deliver us to the plunderers of 
socialism; neither is it the people, obliged to pay- 
by its blood and sweat for the follies of monarchical 
or legislative despotism. 

Was not the excommunication decreed by the 
popes against a sovereign destitute of faith and 
morality, and a notorious oppressor of his subjects, 
a little better than a convention adjudging to death 
a weak king, whose only crime was that of occupy- 
ing a throne sullied by the orgies of his predeces- 
sors. The excommunication fulminated by the 
famous bull, In Ccena Domini, against all those 
who should establish in their lands new imposts, 
or should allow themselves to increase the old, 
unless in cases foreseen by the right, — was it not 
a little more efficacious for the relief of the people 
than the modern charters which say to them : 
"Every three or five years you shall elect men 
charged to increase every year the amount of your 
debt, of your taxes, and the number of officials 
despoiling you of your liberties ?" 

Let us now pass to the excommunications de- 
signed to defend the patrimony of the Holy Father. 

If the popes had employed those spiritual arms 
for the enlargement of their dominions, there would 
be reason to exclaim against the abuse, but evi- 
dently it was not so. Of all the ancient govern- 
ments of Europe, that of the pope w*as the only 
one, that, with every means of aggrandizement, 
contented itself with the territory which it had at 
the end of the eighth century, and had even relin- 
quished some provinces of it, such as Parma, 
Mantua, the island of Corsica, Venice and Istria, 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 293 

expressly contained in Charlemagne's donation. 
Do we need anything more to confound the decla- 
mations of the liberalists against the ambition of 
the popes ? 

But, we are told, they employed excommuni- 
cation against the sovereigns who attacked their 
domain, and was not that to abuse the spiritual 
sword to the profit of their temporal interests? 
Yes, for this they employed it, do still employ it, 
and we must hope will ever continue to do so. 
And first, robbery by force of arms, although a 
temporal affair, is none the less a violation of God's 
law, a criminal act, and, as such, subject to spiritual 
penalties in the Christian ; and because the spolia- 
tor, instead of being one individual, robbing his 
victim in the obscurity of the night, is a sovereign 
acting in the face of the universe, and causing 
himself to be followed by twenty thousand accom- 
plices,— is not this spoliation twenty thousand times 
more criminal, more worthy of punishment? 

You will, perhaps, allege in behalf of the prince, 
the condition of his state; but I answer: The con- 
dition of his state can be invoked by the simple 
malefactor, and not by the prince; theft is neither 
necessary nor suitable to the latter, but it is the 
trade, the condition of the former. If you think 
it well that justice condemn to the prison or the 
gallows, robbers of low condition, do not take it 
ill that the pope excommunicates the princes who 
try to replace the Seventh Commandment of God 
by this : The goods of others thou mayst take 
when thou canst do so with impunity. 

To these considerations, common to all property, 
25* 



294 The People s Ark. 

may be added another of much greater weight, 
when it deals with the temporal domain of the Holy 
See. And this consideration you have already 
seen, my friends ; it is that the pope's domain is 
the guarantee of his independence in spiritual, and 
by the same, the religious liberty of the Catholic 
universe. If, from the Lombard kings, Astolphus 
and Desiderius, down to the chiefs of the atheistical 
brigands of our day, you can find only one usurper 
of the states of the Holy See who has not proposed 
to himself to annihilate the papacy, and make it 
the docile instrument of his favorite passions, I 
beg you to name him to me, for I do not know 
one, although I have turned nearly all the pages 
of history. It is, then, clearly manifest, that if the 
popes had hesitated to draw the spiritual sword 
of excommunication against the usurpers of a prin- 
cipality which belongs far less to them than to 
God and the Catholic world, they would have 
failed in their duty. 

It is the same, in proportion, with all ecclesias- 
tical property. Destined by their donors for the 
support of the altars and their ministers, and the 
relief of the people, thus freed from the expenses 
of religious service, and from the obligation im- 
posed on them to assist the indigent, those pro- 
perties are a patrimony at once religious and 
national, which it imports us to declare inviolable. 
Again they have been placed, from their very 
origin, under the safeguard of Catholic laws, with 
the penalty of excommunication against the rav- 
isher, whoever he may be. This measure is as 
much in the interests of states as of the Church, 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 295 

inasmuch as the public and official robbery of 
ecclesiastical property always constitutes an at- 
tempt on the social and religious life of a people. 

First, an attempt on the religious life of a nation. 
What I said, a moment ago, of the invaders of the 
States of the Pope, is equally applicable to the 
despoilers of ecclesiastical goods. You will not 
find one, from the fourth century down to the 
radical Swiss and Italians of our day, who have 
not proposed to themselves either the destruction 
or subjection of the Church. 

The hangmen of atheism begin by disrobing the 
bishops and priests, and cutting off their hair, pre- 
paratory to cutting off their heads, or fastening 
them by a chain, which makes of the clergy a 
watch-dog, barking for the profit of the managers 
of the state. This is what I have elsewhere called 
the toilet of the condemned. And ought not the 
Church, who sees all this, to fulminate her anathe- 
mas against the sacrilegious brigands who wish to 
rob a nation of its most precious treasure — the 
Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion? 

Secondly, an attempt on the social life of a 
nation. No society is possible without a great 
respect for the right of propriety. Now, when a 
government itself violently seizes on ecclesiastical 
property, the civil right of propriety is by the same 
act abolished. Those rulers who think they can 
confiscate religious property without endangering 
their own, because they have soldiers, while the 
Church has none, have against them three terrible 
systems of logic— that of heaven, that of the human 
conscience, and that of hell. 



296 The People s Ark. 

Jesus Christ says: This government dees not 
wish that either I myself, my Church or my poor, 
should enjoy the right of property; — well, until 
there be complete separation, no one shall enjoy 
that right. Socialists, march on! 

The human conscience says: If the voluntary 
donations and offerings made to the altars to 
assure the perpetuity and independence of religious 
service, and the relief of the poor, may well be 
taken, there is a hundred times more reason to 
lay hold on the possessions of the king, duke, 
marquis, count, magistrate, lawyer, solicitor, manu- 
facturer, shopkeeper, etc. Then long live the 
socialists! Death to the obstinate proprietor! 

Satan says to his agents : If the robbery of the 
great defenders of property does not lead to uni- 
versal robbery and the slaughter of the human 
race, it will be our fault; — forward! 

When one has these three logicians against 
him, armed force can do nothing ; he must either 
boldly deny the principle, or bear the consequences 
and submit to the toilet of the condemned. One 
might doubt the divine justice, if the secularization 
of Church property by the higher classes, did not 
lead to the socialization of the fortunes of those 
classes by demagogism. 

What, then, does the Church do, when she 
anathematizes the invaders of religious property? 
She defends society against those blinded and 
savage men whom they call to pillage, massacre, 
and incendiarism. What, then, should a Catholic 
nation do? It ought to support with all its 
strength the claims of its common mother against 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 297 

the robbers, and neglect nothing to make them 
relinquish their prize. They must not permit 
themselves to be deceived by the high-sounding 
phrases by which those men seek to justify their 
odious robberies. 

What do the robbers of church property say? 
They never fail to allege the good of religion, the 
good of the state, the good of the people. Let us 
see what is in these sayings. 

First, the good of religion. The honor of the 
priesthood, and the exactitude of religious service, 
say those graspers, require that the priests be not 
distracted from their functions by the embarrass- 
ments of temporal affairs. In freeing them from 
those cares unworthy of priestly souls, and in pro- 
viding for their honest support, by means of the 
treasury, we render them an inappreciable service. 
Look at the French clergy! Is it not a model 
since it has been salaried ? 

This is the reasoning of those who wish to make 
the pope the head of a convent of cardinals, salaried 
by the powers, and placed under their high protec- 
tion. They know very well that a clergy paid by 
the state and deprived of the right of acquiring, 
remains necessarily below its high functions, even 
were it most eminent for its knowledge and virtues. 

They cite France ! Well, I most heartily sub- 
scribe to all their eulogies of its present clergy, 
provided they do not oppose it as a criticism on 
the French clergy of 1790; for the latter, with the 
miseries inseparable from the state of oppression in 
which they were so long held, remains none the 
less one of the glories of France and the Churchy 



298 The Peoples Ark. 

and by the heroism of those who so nobly fell 
under the knife of the atheists, and the admirable 
conduct of those who w T ent among Protestant 
nations, particularly England, they combated anti- 
Catholic and anti-French prejudices, and opposed 
the spectacle of the highest virtues to the abomi- 
nable orgies of the sons-culottes \ and also, allow me 
to say, covered the scandal of the Voltarian man- 
ners of the greater number of the other emigres. 
The actual French clergy would, I doubt not, do 
the same in the like circumstances* but does it 
exercise the same influence over the people ? No, 
evidently not. This is precisely what we would 
wish, say the liberalists. Yes, but see what you 
would not wish. To the influence of the priests, 
who said in the name of God, Thou shalt not kill, 
thou shalt not take the goods of others, has succeeded 
the influence of those who say to the people, in the 
name of reason — Rob all the wealthy, and kill all 
those who shall resist ! And these two command- 
ments of the socialistic Decalogue would have 
been already executed, were it not for the zealous 
labors of the priesthood and the army. 

If you wish to know, my friends, how the salary 
has, in a great measure, destroyed religious in- 
fluence, I shall here adduce some of the most 
striking reasons." 

First: the extreme smallness of the state sub- 
sidies has, so far, produced a great gap in the 
ministry of the evangelical word ; now, where 
religion does not preach, evil passions teach. 

Secondly: the insufficiency of ecclesiastical sala- 
ries, known to every one and acknowledged by 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 299 

the state, has necessitated the establishment of a 
perquisite, which, however just it may be in itself 
and indispensable to those who receive it, is none 
the less odious? What could you expect? The 
people, also, have their whims. They will not 
murmur at judiciary perquisites or those of the 
university, no matter how large they may be; they 
will not find it too much to ruin themselves to pay 
for justice, for the doctor, or for the college, in 
order to obtain the redress of their wrongs, the 
reestablishment of their health, or that of their 
cattle, or to give a little better education to their 
children. But when there is question of the culture 
and religious care of their souls, they do not wish 
it should cost them anything. 

Thirdly: the support of churches and of all that 
belongs to worship, formerly sustained by religious 
foundations, is now imposed on the public. There 
are the pew-rents, and those endless collections, 
things necessary, but very melancholy in the house 
of our Heavenly Father, open to all, particularly 
to the poorer classes. These latter stay away and 
say: "Religion costs too much; it is for ladies 
and gentlemen." When one-half of the people say 
this, beware ! 

The spoliators of the Church allege, above all, 
the good of the state, the prosperity of agriculture, 
and the well-being of the agricultural populations. 

The charges and embarrassments of the treasury 
are such, say they, that, in order not to crush the 
people with taxes, it is necessary to take those 
pecuniary resources which the unenlightened piety 
of our ancestors has accumulated. In giving cir- 



300 The People s Ark. 

culation to those large funds which languish in the 
hands of the clergy and the monks, we shall obtain 
the division of lands, raise the farmer to the rank 
of a proprietor, encourage agriculture, which is the 
people's wealth, etc., etc. 

It is very true that the number of the possessors 
of the soil is considerably increased since 1790, and 
why? It is true that the interests in landed pro- 
perty having been lost or forgotten in the revolu- 
tion, the spirit of speculation is carried elsewhere. 
Let a strong and intelligent government favor and 
free it from encumbrance, you would see the capi- 
talists fall upon it, remove an infinity of hedges 
and boundaries, and gather together much more 
landed property than they did under the ancient 
regime. The reason of this is, that it is only the 
rich who buy, and it is religion alone that can 
intervene between the strong and the feeble; hence 
wealth necessarily falls into the hands of the strong, 
who are the smaller number. It is very evident 
that in France, agriculture, far from following the 
progress of the population, has, until now, lan- 
guished under the weight of taxes and the tyranny 
of usury, and by the absence of arms and capital, 
which have been drawn to the great cities, to play 
their part in revolutions. Formerly a grain-grow- 
ing country, France is at present in want of it, 
although it possesses now what it had not formerly, 
the rich substitute of the potato. 

The number of the proprietors is greater ; be it 
so: but are the revenues of the properties more 
usefully employed to the profit of a greater number? 
The religious proprietors, however lazy they may 



Tiventy-Sccond Entertainment. 301 

be called, consumed their revenues on the spot, 
caused all the arts and trades to flourish, provided 
for worship and education, and were the resources 
of the country in years of distress. Even suppos- 
ing that the great gentlemen, who have succeeded 
those idlers, manage the land much better, where 
do they go to spend their revenues? How do they 
employ them ? In the support of one of our most 
grievous social wounds ? — the devouring luxury 
of cities. 

"The farmer shall become a proprietor/' Yes, 
the farmers of the clergy and the monks, could, by 
their conduct, become good proprietors, and what 
is more, educate without expense their children 
who should show a liking for study; but the ninety- 
hundredths of our actual farmers and their children 
remain proletaries, and as they but too frequently 
resemble their masters in a religious point of view, 
they are socialists. 

Let us conclude, my friends. That those intrigu- 
ing and ambitious men who call themselves the 
state, and are only its pest, should find it to the 
interest of their pride and cupidity to despoil and 
humble the Church at the risk of drawing her 
anathemas on their head, I can conceive; but that 
the common people of the cities, and still more 
the country population, who know the state only 
by its officers of justice and its tax-gatherers, should 
behold those acts of spoliation with indifference, 
is what I cannot understand, and I find in it a 
proof of complete stupidity. 

What is the Church to you } my friends? Is 
she a stranger, whose interests are to be separated 
26 



302 The Peoples Ark. 

from yours ? No, certainly not ! The Church is 
manifestly your all — both for soul and body, for 
time and eternity. To recognize this, it is only 
necessary to open your eyes. 

What are the clergy, with all the imperfections 
and weaknesses from which the sacerdotal charac- 
ter does not entirely free our poor human nature ? 
They are your men by excellence, drawn nearly 
always from your class, leaving you for some years, 
only to return to dwell in the midst of you, like 
their Divine Master, full of grace and truth. They 
are obliged, by the solemn engagements which 
they take before God and men, to renounce all 
the hopes of this world, that they may live only 
for you. They procure you the first and greatest 
of all goods, even in regard to this world, that 
religious instruction which expands your ideas, 
elevates your heart, and prevents you from becom- 
ing, like the pagans, miserable slaves under the 
lash of the priests of vice and error. 

In opening to you the treasury of religious 
consolations which give so much peace to the soul, 
and are the gauge of the joys of heaven, they 
wage continual w 7 ar against your great spiritual 
and temporal enemies — your vices. 

You say: The priests, instead of being the min- 
isters of peace and charity, are nearly always in- 
tolerant, grumbling, discontented busybodies, who 
wish to meddle with everything. 

Yes, the priests are as intolerant as the physi- 
cians, as grumbling as the shepherd who sees the 
wolf coming, as discontented as the father who 
sees his children take to evil courses, and as med- 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 303 

dling as the mother who has an eye on the conduct 
of her daughters. 

What is the good physician? Is it he who 
seeing gangrene on your hand or foot, says : " It 
is nothing!" or is it he, who not tolerating it, opens 
his case of instruments, makes you cry aloud, but 
saves you ? Well, the gangrene on yourself, on 
your family, is drunkenness, impurity, idleness, envy, 
hatred, and the hideous wound of lawsuits. Those 
who, by their fair speeches foment those wounds 
among you, are your most formidable enemies. 
The priest who is afraid of those maladies, and 
makes every effort to apply a remedy to them, is 
your friend above all others. He does more than 
if he gave a bag of gold to your family. Vice and 
lawsuits would soon empty the bag; but virtue, 
even in the poorest family, does not allow hunger 
to enter. 

Your pastors are grumblers ! But if they do 
not complain of you when you go astray, they 
will be sure to hear the complaints of the Heavenly 
Father. If they complain of the good you are 
doing, you can denounce them to the bishop. 
But if it be for the evil by which you would draw 
upon yourself the reproaches of God and your 
conscience, and which would conduct you to mis- 
fortune, whither evil ever leads, believe me, profit 
by their advice, how bitter soever it may appear, 
and correct yourselves. 

They wish to domineer over all! What could 
you expect? It is in some measure their duty. 
The beauty of the religion of Jesus Christ is that 
it is for all, it must speak to every one, everywhere, 



304 The People s Ark. 

and always. As she recognizes no right which 
does not impose duties, and as she wishes to give 
rights to all, it is necessary that she should teach 
to all their duties, and not only in a general way, 
but in their most minute details, since religious, 
civil and domestic society can dispense with gene- 
ral virtues, but has great need of virtues in detail. 

I acknowledge, my friends, that of all known 
religions, the Catholic religion is the boldest and 
most exacting. Have I not told you that her first 
apostles had scarcely entered into Rome, ere they 
went to the very palace of Nero, and formed a 
little church of saints from among his courtiers 
and mistresses? What imprudence! and how 
dearly did they pay for it ! for history tells us, that 
Nero, naturally very curious, and not too firm a 
believer in the gods of the empire, had not at first 
regarded the new religion with an unfavorable eye, 
until he was rendered furious by the conversion 
of one of the victims of his lust. 

What must plead excuse for the pretensions of 
the Catholic religion, is that the submission of 
everyone to her precepts would make the world 
a terrestrial paradise, as we have already seen. 
Do not forget the Mayor's maxim, which in itself 
is worth a book: "Where God does not direct, 
Satan governs." And as the Catholic religion 
could not exist without the Catholic priesthood, 
you must understand that all the moral and 
material power which they draw from their office 
is drawn for your benefit. 

When bishoprics, abbeys, chapters, and parishes 
are richly endowed and gifted with great influence, 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 305 

who draw the greatest profit from this ? You, my 
friends, to whom other careers are almost inter- 
dicted. The Church, to open to her children a 
way to the highest dignities, even that of the pope, 
asks of them only virtue and intelligence. You 
are perhaps aware that among so many immortal 
priests, abbots, bishops, cardinals, and popes, a 
great number were born in even a lower condition 
than was our Divine Lord. And those children 
of the people having attained that dignity, could 
they well forget the people's interests without 
resisting the cry of religion and nature ? And 
what use do they generally make of their large 
revenues? Do they spend them in foolish extrava- 
gance, as is but too frequently done by the princes 
of the world ? or do they hoard them up for the 
benefit of their heirs ? No, certainly not ; the 
scandal given by some priests who have dishonored 
their ministry and ruined their families, in wishing, 
not to relieve them, but to enrich them with the 
gold of the sanctuary, should not prevent us from 
recognizing the truth of the account rendered of 
the Church as a proprietor in presence of her 
spoliators, an account which I have thus drawn 
up elsewhere: 

"The secular and regular clergy had founded 
all, the spoliators have melted all ; the people are 
obliged to buy all." 

MAYOR. 

For my part, I thank you, sir, for your reflec- 
tions on ecclesiastical property, and the necessity 
for having a clergy influential enough to speak of 
religion and morality to those who need it most. 

26* 



306 The People s Ark. 

That among those who govern, many dislike the 
severe lessons of the priest on the management of 
affairs and the public revenues, we can understand; 
but there is so much the more reason why we 
should say to the priest : Speak boldly and loudly 
to those gentlemen, and provided that you hold to 
the words of the Gospel against thieves, hypocrites 
and oppressors, fear nothing ! Those nations so 
happy as to have preserved their ecclesiastical and 
other foundations, would do very wrong were they 
not to cry out to those who wish to renew the 
brigandage of former times : Beware of touching 
them; if not, there shall be a great uproar! 

As to those, who, for the last century have been 
eating their golden goose, it would seem that for 
them there is but one way of extricating themselves 
from their trouble, — that is full and entire liberty 
for the religion of the majority and those of the 
minorities, to receive, acquire, possess and ad- 
minister the funds destined for the expenses of 
worship, the education of youth, and the exercise 
of benevolence. 

This would have the immense advantage of 
rapidly lessening the amount of^taxes on the 
budget, of reanimating the spirit of religion, and 
devotedness to the public good, a spirit kept alive 
only by works and sacrifices — of making a reality 
of that liberty of religion and conscience which 
has been so long decreed; in fine, of arresting the 
forced march of our administration towards so- 
cialism. Some rulers seem to recognize the evil ; 
would to Heaven that they might also see the 
remedy and hesitate not to apply it! 



Twenty-Second Entertainment. 307 

Regarding the States of Sardinia, which would 
enter, it is said, on the way of revolution by the 
ordinary door, that is to say, by striking the 
Church, I should be much pleased if you would 
say a word on the laws about to be published there 
for the abolition of ecclesiastical privileges and 
immunities, and the reduction of the number of 
feasts recognized by the state. It seems that they 
have been rather hasty, and that in not wishing 
to negotiate with the pope on the subject, they 
have done wrong in the method; but is the prin- 
ciple really so bad? Privileges in matters of jus- 
tice have in them something odious, and the priest 
who has taught us that there should be but one 
weight, one measure, one justice for all, ought he 
to hold that there should be two? Does the honor 
of the holy place require that it should become 
an assured refuge for robbers ? With our manners 
and present necessities, is not the multiplication 
of feasts a grave inconvenience? Such, sir, is what 
is said. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

My entertainments being addressed to my audi- 
ence, that is to say, the universality of Catholic 
people, you understand, sir, that I can occupy 
myself with a particular state only in view of those 
principles. However, as the privilege of the eccle- 
siastical court, the immunity of holy places, and 
the holy days, belong to Catholic principles, I will 
say something about them in the next entertain- 
ment. 



TWENTY-THIRD ENTERTAINMENT. 



Reasons for the privileges of the ecclesiastical tribunal — 
Immunity of the holy place — Of the number of festi- 
vals — What the people gain by the abasement of the 
clergy — European lawsuit. 

^HE gratuitous privilege, that is to say, the 
privilege granted to one person or class and 
unreasonably refused to others, is an odious 
thing. The Catholic Church has never wished 
any such ; she desires that the rights should be 
proportioned to the obligations. 

The onerous privilege which is given only by 
reason of the charge, and tends solely to facilitate 
its accomplishment, is pure justice to him to whom 
it is granted, and evidently turns to the public 
good, if the charge be public. 

Now, my friends, such is the privilege of the 
tribunal established for bishops and priests. This 
privilege exists, and should exist, for all profes- 
sions really exceptional. The most liberal legis- 
lators and friends of equality have granted it, not 
only to the heads of state, but also to members of 
legislative, university, and military bodies, to prin- 
cipal officials and others. It is everywhere under- 
stood that it is but just to give to citizens, compe- 

308 



Twenty-Third Entertainment. 309 

tent judges, subject to special laws and duties; it 
is everywhere understood that the public service 
could not allow 7 important functionaries to be dis- 
turbed in their employments without serious cause, 
and that it would never do to leave them at the 
mercy of the vexations and cabals of their subor- 
dinates. 

Well, I ask you, my friends, have not the bishop 
and priest, charged by God and the universal 
Church to intimate to kings, and their ministers, 
as well as to the least of the citizens, that law r to 
which all greatness should bow profoundly, — the 
bishop and priest, victims of the public salvation 
from their early youth even unto death, — the 
bishop and priest, who are, by their state, men 
of God and of humanity, the ministers of that 
Christian republic whose head is in Rome, whose 
citizens are in the whole universe ; have not those 
men, I say, a right to some regard? Do not the 
spiritual, and also the temporal interests of the 
human race, of every state, family, and individual 
(for the priest is the debtor to all) exact, that in a 
state making profession of Catholicity, the bishop 
may not be dragged before public tribunals, or 
before a beardless judge, by the first comer, and 
for whatever he may choose? 

Would you, my friends, think it proper that your 
pastor, who has to wage war against every vice, 
should be obliged to go before tribunals to reply 
to all the complaints and interpellations of vice? 
Is it to be desired that that man, who is by duty 
the settler of your enmities and lawsuits, should 
be placed at the discretion of those officers, solid- 



3 io The Peoples Ark. 

tors, attorneys, and lawyers, who live only by your 
enmities and lawsuits ? 

You say: "If he be innocent, he will be ac- 
quitted !" — Yes, he will be acquitted, but it is none 
the less true that w 7 hile he is on the roads and 
streets, he will not be able to attend to your sick 
and your children. While he is preparing his 
defence, he will not be able to write the Sunday 
sermon, and if he prepare it, instead of speaking 
of your spiritual maladies and touching them to 
the quick, he will be strongly tempted to speak to 
you of trifles. 

Of all that has been said and written on the 
subject of the Piedmontese law, I shall speak of 
only two follies, the one of the people, the other 
of the parliament. 

After the publication of the law, a peasant, who 
was a passably good Christian, said, after reading 
it: O! if they stop here, the evil will not be great; 
we shall know a little better what the priests are 
doing! — Good man, if you are curious to know 
what the priests will do, I will tell you, replied 
Plato Punchinello, who was there. The priest 
with a Catholic heart in a young body, will say to 
his bishop: My Lord, allow me to go and evan- 
gelize the infidels. The bishop will at the, first 
request, answer, No ! At the second, he will say : 
Yes, my son, go, and may God bless your steps ! 
The pries', Catholic in heart, but feeble in health, 
or broken down by age, will remain as in the past, 
and some time or other he will be imprisoned or 
banished as rebellious to the laws. 

Those priests who wish the peace which God 



Twenty-Third Entertainment. 311 

does not give, will conform themselves to the will 
of the statesmen, and make every effort to hold 
their sheep while being sheared, re-sheared and 
skinned, until there come a socialistic chief to say 
to you: Poor victims, arm yourselves with your 
guns, scythes, and axes, and make such slaughter 
of the priests and those leeches of the state, that 
there shall not remain a vestige of them ! What 
he will say, you will not do, but others will. Then 
you shall be at the mercy of the devil, for Jesus 
Christ will deny the nation that has denied him. 

The parliamentary folly is this : The partisans 
of law in the two houses are ever saying: The jus- 
tice of the state must be extended to all its subjects 
without distinction. 

The justice of the state! That a lawyer who 
has read only the law of Pagan Rome, in which 
the will of the sovereign, whether he was Titus or 
Nero, was the principle of all justice; — that a lawyer 
who knows only certain jurists of the time of Louis 
XIV., declaring that the king is the supreme source 
of all justice in the state, should utter those ex- 
travagances of wretched servilism, is all well and 
good. But a nation which has drawn from the 
Gospel its ideas of justice, cannot accept those 
maxims without degrading itself, without meriting 
to pass under the yoke of the Grand Turk, who 
says to a Cadi: "Strangle that man," and sees 
himself obeyed, in virtue of Mussulman justice. 

Let us hearken again to the voice of history. 
When a great nation was bowed under the justice 
of a Louis XIV., trifling with the laws of Church 
and state, and causing his natural children to be 



312 The Peoples Ark. 

legitimated and worshipped; when it afterwards 
submitted to the morality of a Louis XV., causing 
hundreds of young girls to be dragged away by 
the police; girls whose support and dishonor cost 
millions to the state ; while at the same time, the 
civil magistracy caused the sacred tabernacles to 
be broken open, and the Holy Viaticum to be 
borne to obstinate heretics between four officers of 
justice; when, I say, a great nation acted thus, 
God, in order to bring it to a sense of duty, per- 
mitted it to fall, for a time, under the rule of 
Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Hebert, Chaumette, 
Carrier, etc., etc. 

It is indispensable that the head of a Christian 
nation content himself with the title of minister of 
God for tlie exercise of justice in conformity with 
laws, themselves confirmed by the Christian con- 
science. It must be openly recognized that the 
supreme president of all tribunals is Jesus Christ, 
who says to the magistrates : It is less to the 
king and his ministers than to me, the Judge of 
judges, that you must render account of your 
sentences ! — This is what constitutes the greatness 
of a king, the greatne^ of magistrates, the great- 
ness of a nation. As soon as they deviate from it, 
they advance towards revolutionary justice, the 
murder of kings, magistrates, and all the liberties 
of a people. 

That justice thus understood, should be exer- 
cised in the name of God and the state, is very 
good; that it should be exercised on all the citi- 
zens of the state in absolutely the same manner, 
with the exception of those reserved cases which 



Twenty- Third Entertainment. 313 

Iiave been everywhere set aside, as I have said 
above, is also very good ; but have not those who, 
-above and beyond the quality of citizens are min- 
isters of the universal religion, in the state and 
out of the state, and who pay for this title by im- 
mense services, — have not those, I say, some right 
to be included in the exceptional cases? 

It is necessary, you say, that the priest should 
be subject to the common law. To subject to the 
common law the citizen who remains in the 
common vocation, is all well and good ; but to 
subject to it in everything, one who, for the 
general good, lives in an exceptional state, con- 
tracts very onerous obligations, and submits him- 
self to a special and most severe discipline, is not 
only ingratitude, but injustice; it is a violation of 
that principle you pretend to establish — equality 
of burdens. 

To say to the bishops or priests, in the face of 
a nation : " The law recognizes you merely as 
citizens," is to despoil them of their religious cha- 
racter ; it is legal atheism, for every one is a priest, 
where the law no longer recognizes any. For the 
pleasure of humbling the Church of the Pope, they 
will enlarge that of Proudhon and Mazzini; — it is, 
I think, a bad bargain. 

Finally, I see danger of the total destruction of 
a nation, in which the gentlemen of the pen would 
cause to depend unreservedly on the king's tribu- 
nals, those whose mission it is to say to the highest 
functionaries, and even to kings: "Thou shalt not 
kill, thou shalt not be impure, thou shalt not rob 
the people, etc/' 



3i 4 The Peoples Ark. 

Is this to say, that the clergy must be completely 
exempt from secular legislation ? Certainly not ; 
such have never been the pretensions of the priest- 
hood; such are not its interests well understood. 
As the holy unction is not a warrant of impecca- 
bility in him who has received it, and as it would 
be only an aggravating circumstance in the priest 
who should stain himself with crime, it must not 
be a warrant of impunity. 

How then can be recognized the two great in- 
terests, — the independence of the religious ministry, 
and the good service of justice? There is not an 
earnest thinker who will not reply: It is a subject 
for an agreement between the two powers, and it 
is very probable, that, in the mutable part of her 
discipline, the Church would limit herself to the 
guarantees necessary to the freedom and respect 
due to the sacerdotal office, and would make a 
good bargain of the rest. 

It is the same, my friends, with the privilege 
of immunity for the holy place. To say absolutely 
that nothing must retard the march of justice, is 
pure despotism. Woe to the people among whom 
nothing retards the course of justice! To say that 
nothing should be sacred to justice, is legal athe- 
ism; it is an insult to the conscience of the human 
race; for all nations have recognized, in one manner 
or other, the right of asylum in their temples, as 
the Piedmontese lawyers learned from an old and 
brave general.* 

The Catholic conscience does not suffer that the 

* Gen. d'Aviernoz. 



Twenty- Third Entertainment. 315 

temples in which the immolated Lamb hears our 
prayers and unites them to His, should ever be- 
come a den of thieves, or the theatre of acts of 
violence and scenes of carnage between refugees 
and the ministers of justice. How can we recon- 
cile these two things? As it has always been 
* done, — by a treaty between the two powers charged 
to provide for the honor of God's house, and for 
public security. 

I pass in silence over some beautiful considera- 
tions which might be made on the importance of 
the right of asylum in our times of faction and 
revolutionary storms. I pass equally over the 
great lessons of history, among others, that of the 
proud eunuch Eutropius, favorite minister of the 
Emperor Arcadius, violating by his laws and acts 
the right of Christian asylum, and obliged, some 
days afterwards, to have recourse to it, in order to 
retard his own death. I come to the question of 
feasts. 

How is it that the people, in whose name the 
reduction of the number of feasts is demanded, 
have always found that they had not enough of 
them ? How is it that where the reduction had 
been legitimately effected by a concordat, as in 
France, it took years for the two powers to obtain 
submission to the law? We have, in fact, the 
police reports which state, that, in crowded locali- 
ties, despite the measures taken by bishops and 
magistrates, pastors and mayors, the people forced 
the hand of the priests , and compelled them by 
threats to return to the ancient religion. 

They had, nevertheless, at that time, the well- 



31 6 The Peoples Ark. 

known will of the pope, and besides, the sword 
of Napoleon. Those who have studied the history 
of Catholic worship, know very well that more 
than the half of our feasts are of popular command, 
and that there had been holidays in fact, long 
before they were of precept. 

And why so ? Ah ! it is because a Catholic 
people has an instinctive consciousness of two 
great truths : first, the time consecrated to the 
religious culture of souls, conduces greatly to the 
cultivation of the fields, and the good employment 
of wealth ; secondly, in proportion as a Christian 
people becomes civilized and progresses in the 
arts, it can moderately diminish material works, 
without prejudice to its well-being. 

I shall not undertake to develop these two 
truths, which I have touched on elsewhere,* and 
which your own good sense can investigate. 

How does it happen, then, that everywhere is 
demanded an increase of working days for the 
people ? The palpable reason is this : When, by 
the enfeeblement of Catholic belief which can alone 
make labor acceptable to all, and place limits to 
the thirst for gold and pleasure, the number of 
idlers, misers, and voluptuaries is immeasurably 
increased; — when by the boundless depravity of 
manners, a great number of workmen are drawn 
from the nutritive labors of a people to be applied 
to factitious wants, or to work at manufactures 
lucrative to the master ; — when, by the system of 
administrative centralization, the state is become 

* Science of Life, t. 



Twenty-Third Entertainment. 317 

a hive, in which the drones, which do nothing but 
eat and hum, nearly equal in number the honey- 
bees, it is highly necessary that the people work 
the six days of the week, a great part of the nights, 
and even on Sunday; otherwise famine enters the 
country, and the peasant cannot pay his taxes. 

See, my friends, what you gain by the abasement 
of the clergy, who are your only fampart against 
the oppressive tendencies of the influential classes. 
All the power and consideration taken from them, 
passes necessarily to their enemies, who try to 
free themselves from pretended clerical despotism, 
only to render themselves absolute masters of the 
religious and material interests of a people. Once 
that those new popes shall have united in their 
hands both the cross and the sword, the catechism 
and the civil code, what shall happen? That 
which we see in England, and in all countries that 
have Anglicanized themselves : — to the Catholic 
religion, which preaches to all the law of justice 
and fraternal charity, shall succeed two religions ; 
the egotistical religion of gold and pleasure in the 
higher classes, and the brutalizing religion of 
forced labor and of hunger among the masses. 
The latter sink beneath the condition of the slaves 
of antiquity. 

In fact, the slaves belonged to their masters, 
who were interested in preserving those machines 
which they could not replace, except at great 
expense, while the English manufacturer is only 
embarrassed in the choice among that laboring 
population whom hunger places at his discretion. 
He naturally prefers the machines which promise 
27* 



318 The Peoples Ark. 

him the most labor at the least expense; he uses 
and abuses them according to his good pleasure, 
and as soon as they are out of order, he throws 
them aside and takes others. When the capital 
alone offers fifty thousand young zvomen who consent 
to ivork eighteen hours to earn seven cents y is there 
any fear that they shall be in want of laboring 
machines? 

In a state, in which, thanks to the influence of 
the Catholic priesthood, the Christian spirit is still 
powerful, it is not the same. There the heartless 
speculator cannot obtain permission to stow in 
infected workshops, thousands of individuals of 
both sexes, the greater number children, to draw 
gold from them ; there the well-dressed knaves and 
libertines, who keep holiday the three hundred and 
sixty-five days of the year, and clamor against the 
holidays of the feasts, are neither numerous nor 
considerable enough to become statesmen; there 
they are very careful not to confide the role of 
legislators to those who live by the great number 
of the laws, and the ignorance of the people re- 
garding those laws; there the government is wise 
enough to limit itself to the doing of that which 
the citizens, corporations and provinces cannot do, 
neither does it place the treasury under charge of 
an army of officials who devour one-half the public 
moneys, in order to rob the people of their faith, 
their morals and tleir liberties. What is the result 
of this state of things, my friends? It is the general 
good. As one of your proverbs says: "When 
every one wishes to bear a little of the burden, no 
one is hurt. ,, Every one laboring more or less 



Twenty-Third Entertainment. 319 

usefully, and being able to enjoy the fruit of his 
labor, the people are at leisure to breathe and to 
refresh their soul more frequently in raising it 
towards God. If there be excess in religious fes- 
tivals, the clergy, who are by principle enemies to 
excess, and to whom those feasts are days of toil, 
lend themselves willingly to reforms operated by 
competent authority. 

Such was the case in the Sardinian states. Sup- 
pose that the Concordat concluded with the Holy 
See by the Sardinian government had not suffi- 
ciently remedied the abuses complained of, nothing 
prevented them from supplying it by a new agree- 
ment. But that would not suit the heads of the 
English Cabinet, their ally Mazzini, nor the Pied- 
montese lawyers, invested by constitutional statute 
with parliamentary omnipotence. The noble Lords 
Russell and Palmerston, inconsolable at seeing the 
fire, which they had been fanning in Italy for three 
years, almost extinguished, were anxious to re- 
kindle it. Mazzini, not content with the forty or 
fifty millions stolen from Rome, was well pleased 
to continue his trade, and make Piedmont feed his 
bands. Those high personages then said to the 
Piedmontese ministers : " If you wish us to aid 
you in raising the kingdom of Upper Italy, so 
much compromised by your defeat at Novara, 
hasten to break with the pope, imprison the bishops 
and priests, and allow the press to protestantize 
the country, by ruining all respect for religion and 
morality." — " Bravo! bravo!" exclaimed the lawyers 
of the country, reinforced by all those of Italy, "the 
priests have made us live long enough under the 



320 The Peoples Ark. 

despotic laws of God and the Church ; let us prove 
to them that there is a law superior to all laws — 
the law of the state, when we make it ourselves !" 

What will be the result of such a system for the 
Sardinian states, composed of incongruous parts, 
which can be firmly united only by the cement of 
religion, and the constant wisdom of an impartial 
government? There is no one who does not see 
it, except those blinded men, who labor for the 
destruction of religion, and one of the most illus- 
trious sovereign houses. 

Finally, this is only one incident of the great 
lawsuit now going on in Europe between Catho- 
licity — which says: The mighty and the lozvly, the 
strong and the feeble, are all the property of God 
and of Jesus Christ, and owe an equal submission 
to His law! — and the anticatholic parties, who all 
say, in one way or other: The earth, with all its 
wealth and its inhabitants, is delivered over to the 
strongest and most clever. This trial, entered on 
by preceding generations, must be decided before 
the end of this century, as I have said elsewhere.* 

As this suit is of the deepest interest to you, 
and as its object is to know whether you and your 
children shall live under the civilizing law of Catho- 
licity, or the brutalizing code of swine and tigers, 
it is necessary that I place before your eyes the 
diverse phases of the case, and signalize the prin- 
cipal authors of the terrible imbroglio, whence we 
can come forth only by the way of Rome, or that 
of the tomb. This is what I propose to do in the 
following entertainment. 

* Reveil du Peuple. 



TWENTY-FOURTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Labors of modern Europe to secularize everything — Who 
have undertaken this great work, and what they have 
gained by it. 

'O secularize the temporalities of the Church, 
to secularize the instruction of youth, to 
secularize the public benevolence, this is the 
modern spirit," was said some time ago by 
a Belgian minister. He expressed a great truth. 
To secularize the temporalities of the Church, 
that is, to erase the Church from the catalogue of 
proprietors, to place her at the charge of the 
people, and under the hand of the government; 
to secularize instruction and benevolence, that is, 
to draw from religion the minds and hearts of 
youth and the masses, and to make it only an 
odious and intolerable means of polity; such has 
been the constant end of politics ever since it has 
ceased to be Christian. Royalty, nobility, magis- 
tracy, and citizens, have labored hard for it, with- 
out reflecting on the result ; but Satan, the great 
master of antichristian politics, preordained all the 
efforts of those noble workers to the furtherance 
of his favorite plan, the extermination of the 
Church, a prelude to the extermination of Europe. 

321 



322 The Peoples Ark. 

If he has not yet succeeded, it is not his fault, nor 
that of kings, nor that of the nobility, nor that of 
the magistracy, nor that of the citizens, nor even 
the fault of the national clergy, who have but 
feebly resisted the invasions of secular despotism; 
it is the fault of Jesus Christ and His vicar. 

Let us see the part that each class has taken in 
the work of destruction, and the reward it has 
received. 

In those states that accepted, or rather, that 
submitted to the Protestant Reformation, the sove- 
reigns attained the end with one bound. They 
did more than declare themselves popes; they set 
themselves up as absolute masters of the religious 
and temporal affairs of their subjects, and caused 
to be proscribed, broken on the wheel, hanged, 
drawn, and quartered, such as called in question 
their spiritual or temporal supremacy. If they 
did not immediately gather the worthy fruits of 
their conduct, it was because that minds, still 
wholly Catholic, had not imbibed the logic of 
revolution. England, however, soon exercised the 
natural right of a country against the sovereign 
who makes himself God: she cut off the head of 
Charles L, and abolished the royalty. The repub- 
lic not succeeding very well, she has returned to 
the monarchical form; but in order not to expose 
herself to the sad necessity of decapitating the 
royal person, she decapitates the crown ; she 
makes it an honorary bauble, and the noble lords 
and baronets say : The king shall reign, but we 
will govern in his name and for our profit. 

In fine, the English Protestant royalty, guilty of 



Twenty -Fourth Entertainment. 323 

having dethroned Jesus Christ by the abolition of 
'the Catholic charter, has been justly subjected to 
the outrages of the scaffold and of exile ; and 
reduced, since 1688, to be only a constitutional 
fiction, necessary to maintain the absolute reign of 
thirty or forty thousand lords over nearly one 
hundred and thirty millions of native and colonial 
subjects; she is probably destined to perish under 
the ruins of a political system marvellously con- 
ceived for the brutalizing of the masses. As to the 
other Protestant sovereignties, if they have been 
able to sustain their supremacy up to this time, 
they have exhausted all their expedients. Their 
subjects enlightened by that socialism which is the 
soul of Protestantism, utter now only the cry of 
death against the usurpers of the civil and idigious 
sovereignty, which they claim for every one. I 
have said elsewhere that before the year 1900, 
those crowns shall have become Catholic, or they 
shall no longer exist; I hold to my words. 

In Catholic states the work of secularization 
advanced less quickly but more surely, by the 
care with which legality was substituted for brute 
strength. 

Their sovereigns, professing to be the defenders 
of the Church in their states, naturally obtained a 
larger share in the administration of ecclesiastical 
temporalities. The appetite coming in the eating, 
what they had in their hands they soon gathered 
in their arms, then under their feet. They were 
admirably aided in that enterprise by the magistracy, 
that adorer of Roman law, and hence, the natural 
enemy of Catholic theology which has so greatly 



324 The People s Ark. 

modified the law of pagan Rome. Depositaries 
of the hand of 'justice, the magistrates had a personal 
interest in reducing everything under the hand ot 
the king's justice. They declared at first that 
temporalities belonged of right to the prince, and 
that if the Church had temporal prerogatives, it 
was only by a benevolent concession of the sove- 
reign, always subject to revocation when the 
necessities of the state demanded it. 

Temporalities being mixed with everything, the 
legists hence concluded that not only the goods 
of churches, convents, and benevolent foundations 
ought to return to the crown, but that the nomina- 
tion to all episcopal and abbatial benefices, etc., 
and the administration of the revenues during the 
vacancy of the sees, were essential parts of the 
royal prerogative; that the decision of the causes 
regarding this matter belonged to secular tribu- 
nals; that ecclesiastical jurisdiction, even within 
the narrow limits in which it was enclosed, was a 
royal benefit, since the Church of Christ is without 
territory ; that those reunions of the bishops called 
councils, their theological teachings, even the 
administration of the sacraments, and above all, 
their relations with the Holy See, constituting a 
permanent danger for the state, and even for the 
liberties of the Church; considering the encroach- 
ing spirit of the clergy and of the Roman court, it 
was indispensable that the royal and magisterial 
authorities should exercise a rigorous surveillance 
over everything, in their quality of defenders of the 
state and of true ecclesiastical liberty. 

Louis XIV. was, then, in the legal right or 



Twenty-Fourth Entertainment. 325 

sovereign omnipotence, when, not content with 
disposing at will of all ecclesiastical properties, by 
the regal right extended violently over all benefices, 
by the pensions and commendams with which he 
oppressed them for the profit of his favorites, he 
assembled the bishops in 1682, to dictate theologi- 
cal declarations against the pope, which he then 
made laws of the state and theses to be sustained 
in universities and seminaries. He was the faith- 
ful organ of the legal right of omnipotent sove- 
reignty, when, in his instructions to his son, he 
wrote: "You should be persuaded that kings are 
absolute lords, and have naturally the full and free 
disposition of all the properties possessed, those 
of churchmen as well as of seculars, to use them 

at all times as wise stewards As the life of 

his subjects is his own property, the prince should 
take great care to preserve it"* 

The parliament had also the legal right of judi- 
ciary omnipotence, when, under the despicable suc- 
cessor of the Great Monarch, it gave to the execu- 
tioner the pontifical bull, the mandates of bishops 
and Catholic theology ; when it proscribed religious 
societies, and caused the sacred tabernacle to be 
forced open, to give the holy viaticum to demons. 
The parliamentary magistracy was equally in the 
legal exercise of its omnipotence, when, turning 
against royalty the power conquered from the 
Church, it delivered the prince to the States-General. 
The States- General were in the legal right of that 

* Lemontey. — Essai sur T etabli sement monarchique de 
Louis XIV. 
2$ 



326 The Peoples Ark. 

omnipotence, when, erecting themselves into the 
Constituent Assembly, they tore in pieces royalty, 
nobility, clergy, and parliament. The Convention 
was in the legal right of omnipotence, when, after 
having overwhelmed with ignominies the unhappy 
representatives of royalty, and of the classes which 
had contributed to the royal orgies, it caused them 
to be dragged to the scaffold, ordered the dust of 
the royal tombs to be cast to the winds, and confis- 
cated the metals for the use of the state. 

Less than eighty years after the death of Louis 
XIV., who had so loudly proclaimed this principle: 
France belongs to me and my successors; nothing 
shall be possessed therein, not even by the Church of 
Jesus Christ, save by my good pleasure — behold his 
glorious dynasty lose at one blow, throne, life, 
even its tombs; — what sublime, what solemn jus- 
tice ! Can you not see in it, my friends, an emi- 
nently legitimate and legal judgment of Him, who 
said to the fisherman of Galilee: "All power is 
given to me in heaven, and on earth ; go then, 
teach, baptize, etc."? 

MAYOR. 

Yes, sir, this explanation of the revolutionary 
excesses satisfies me better than any that I have 
read in our historians, more or less bigoted, what- 
ever may be their political opinions. After all, 
when a 'king forgets that he is a man and a Chris- 
tian, and that his subjects are men and Christians 
by the same title as himself, and, above all, when 
this king is, by his high position, the model of 
other kings, it is just that the Eternal Chief of 
kings and nations say to that autocrat: Ah! thou 



Twenty- Fourth Entertainment. 327 

desirest to break with the Most High, and to make 
my religion a fief for thy family! Well, before one 
century, in this beautiful country, the theatre of 
thy omnipotence, there shall not be even a grave 
for thee and thine ! 

The strong minded men of this age of enlight- 
enment talk a great deal about Roman law. con- 
stitutional law, national law, state law, the law of 
the citizens and the people; as to the divine law, 
our legists and politicians regard it as old rubbish, 
defended only by priests and bigots. It may come 
to pass that this old rubbish shall be the law of 
the world. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir, the law of God is imprescriptible; when 
a nation is determined not to know it, there re- 
mains to it only the right of descending from slavery 
to slavery, even to the eternal dungeon destined 
for the obstinate contemners of the right of the 
Author of all justice, of all law. We shall now 
see how far Europe has gone in that direction. 

The secularization of property, instruction, and 
benevolence, had been with absolute monarchs only 
an affair of pride. Content with sovereign dominion, 
they left the Church in the enjoyment of a great 
part of its property, its establishments of education 
and of benevolence. Nothing could be done but 
by the good pleasure of his majesty, the King; 
but it pleased his majesty that the priests should 
continue to preach the religion which saves the 
people, and solaces their moral and material mis- 
eries. The revolutionary leaders, to whom, under 
the name of the nation, were adjudged all rights, 



328 The Peoples Ariz. 

whether monarchical, ecclesiastical and national, 
made the preservation of that fair patrimony an 
affair of pride and cupidity. Not satisfied with pre- 
siding over everything, as did the ancient royalty, 
the new masters wished to reform everything, and 
make their government a work-shop and store- 
house of religion, instruction, and philanthropy, 
of which they should have the absolute direction 
and all the advantages. Fearing above everything 
the return of the religion which never agrees with 
assassins, robbers, and debauchees, they neglected 
nothing to nationalize atheism, or at least deism. 
For the worship of the goddess Reason, which 
did not take, the all-powerful lawyer Robespierre 
imagined he could substitute the worship of his 
Supreme Being. This last having fallen with his 
honorable creator, the theophilanthropists wished 
to place it in honor again under a new form. A 
wag bethought himself of baptizing them under 
the name of Filons- en-troupe, and a universal burst 
of laughter killed the last essay of revolutionary 
religions. 

Obliged to assist, with rage in their heart and 
foam on their lips, at the official reestablishment 
of the Catholic religion, imperiously demanded by 
the real nation and supported by the Little Cor- 
poral, the revolutionary legists succeeded in em- 
barrassing in a hundred ways the action of the 
clergy, and did not allow it to reassume any of the 
influential positions whence it had been expelled. 
The continual war they waged against it was only 
redoubled when the ancient royalty came to gather 
in its enfeebled hands a share in the succession 



Twenty -Fourth Entertainment. 329 

of the empire, and to play the role of the last 
Stuarts in England. The revolutionary leaders 
assumed the title of liberals \ and enlarged their 
party with a crowd of honest people, even Chris- 
tians, discontented with a system of politics bas- 
tard and without posterity. 

The great mission of the liberals was, according 
to themselves, to watch for the defence of the 
glorious national liberties won by the revolution, 
against the retrograding and invading tendencies 
of those who regretted the ancien regime, and 
above all, against the clerical party. Again, when 
the enlightened friends of the country proposed 
some measures proper to ameliorate the position 
of the clergy and extend its sphere of moral action, 
particularly in matters of education and benevo- 
lence, there rose a unanimous cry from the liberal 
press to warn the nation against the emigres ^and 
the priests who had come to impose on it again, 
the infamous yoke of feudality, the theocracy of 
the Middle Ages, the decimations and butcheries 
of the Inquisition. It was by conjuring up those 
phantoms, it was by causing to be believed by dint 
of repetition, the most absurd calumnies, that they 
prevented the restoration from touching on those 
monopolies of revolutionary despotism, dignified 
with the name of national liberties, and that they 
placed them in 1830 under the protection of a 
fabricated royalty, exclusively citizen. 

If the war against the Church seemed then to be 
abated, it was because the victors saw in Catholi- 
city, some, a means of preserving the fruits of the 
victory, others, an expiring religion, whose obse- 
28- 



330 The People s Ark. 

quies it would be well to prepare very peaceably. 
The glorious conquests of the modern mind were 
to be henceforth out of its reach, guarded as they 
were by citizen omnipotence. 

Thus, my friends, it was no longer to be feared 
that your God, your pastor, and yourselves, could 
say in speaking of the Church built by your ances- 
tors or yourselves : This is ours ! Modern legis- 
lation says : The temporalities of w r orship belong to 
the state ! And for fear that you might forget it, 
you are forbidden to make the least repairs in your 
Church without a hundred signatures of the state. 

It was no longer to be feared that a rich testator, 
desirous to console himself and give greater eclat 
to worship, would leave to your parish a part of 
his fortune. The law says to him : Give it to 
whom you wish, except to the Church of whose 
expenses the state intends to take charge. 

In fine, the lower classes were assured of pre- 
serving the liberty of always supporting a religion 
always poor, at least until it pleased the governing 
class to relieve them from it, in obliging the 
smaller properties to be merged in the greater; 
which in the long run was inevitable. Secondly; 
No one could any longer seriously contest with the 
state the exclusive right of teaching youth, and 
forming citizens worthy of the age of enlighten- 
ment. 

No more danger then for your children to fall 
under the yoke of the priest, of the religious, of 
the bigoted benefactor, who would have wished 
to teach them reading, writing, ciphering, and the 
elements of grammar, geography and history. 



Twenty -Fourth Entertainment. 331 

The law punished that guilty concurrence to the 
sale of enlightenment by the soldiers of the state. 
Those among you who could not buy those lights, 
joined to the benefits of ignorance the obligation 
of contributing to the cost of the education of the 
chosen ones of the upper classes. Again, of all 
revolutionary monopolies, that of instruction has 
been, is still, the dearest to the revolutionists. 
Over and above the plentiful endowments and 
magnificent sinecures which it offers them, they 
find therein an incomparable means of influence, 
and an army of instructors, /who teach youth to 
laugh at the priests. Thirdly, and finally, the 
state, in administering benevolence and taking on 
itself the charge of consoling all miseries, deprived 
the Church of charity, its weapon by excellence, 
and the administrative workshop placed at the 
cost of the tax-payers a host of commissioners 
charged to watch over the moral and material ame- 
lioration of the suffering classes. 

It is true that all the precautions of pretended 
liberalism against the return of ecclesiastical de- 
cimation and the funereal piles of the Inquisition, 
raised frightfully the sum of the citizens' tithes for 
the budget, and that the inquisitorial army of the 
holy office of the state, obliged to provide for all, 
became an intolerable burden. But they were 
masters of the parliamentary tribune, and of the 
grand voice of the press, to celebrate incessantly 
the immense benefits of the new order of things, 
and to storm against the enemies of constitutional 
liberty ; they were masters of education in order 
to obtain a youth devoted to that state of things; 



332 The Peoples Ark. 

and the 250,000 French citizens paying the legal 
quit-rent, had almost no reason to envy the 250,000 
English lords reigning in peace over a population 
of helots whom they make cry out : Live liberty ! 
Down with popery! Unfortunately for them, the 
liberals had not suspected one thing : it was, that 
for Catholic nations there is something in the 
human conscience, and something in heaven, which 
baffles the oppressors' calculations. 

One morning, then, the masterpiece of the 
modern mind found itself crushed, no one knew 
how. The representative of citizen royalty escaped 
alone by the light of his throne in flames, amid 
the universal cry of: Live the Republic! The 
secularizers of property, of education, and of be- 
nevolence, saw themselves face to face with omni- 
potent proletarians, who said to them : Let us 
divide or have everything in common; let all or 
none have possession ! Equal and gratuitous in- 
struction to every one, no longer any aristocracy 
of knowledge. You have taught the rich and the 
poor to despise alms as unworthy a free people, 
compensate for it then, by the right to labor and 
assistance, and let the state, the parent of the 
indigent, seat us all at the table of the budget! 
If the suit has not been definitively settled in 
France between the secularizers and the proletariat, 
it is, my friends, owing to local circumstances of 
which you are aware, and to a principle of divine 
government which I wish to explain to you. 

The social cause now being agitated is not 
French alone, it is European; yet more/ it is 
humanitarian, and Jesus Christ, the eternal Autocrat 



Twenty -Fourth Entertainment. 333 

of humanity, intends it to be signally decided on 
our continent, and under the eyes of the human 
race. It is evident that the conduct of all the 
governments of France, whether ancient or modern, 
has served as a rule to all Catholic governments, 
whether under absolute monarchs, constitutional 
kings, or citizen oligarchies. To strip the Church 
of her rights, her liberties, of her every means of 
influence, to degrade her into being a mere instru- 
ment of the police, or a vain shadow of herself, — 
such has been the end constantly pursued, with 
more or less cunning and audacity, by statesmen, 
with very few exceptions. The class which has 
undoubtedly contributed most to religious oppres- 
sion is that of legists and lawyers, who have 
always had their own reasons for not loving what 
they called clerical domination. 

In fact, what becomes of those men of the law, 
wherever clerical domination is powerful enough to 
bring about the reign of the law of justice, of 
charity, to prevent lawsuits, or conciliate contend- 
ing parties without ruining them ? Add to this 
the antichristian atmosphere which they breathe 
in the study of law, which absorbs the life of the 
legist. 

What do we find in the Roman law, so much 
adored by all legists ? Among many admirable 
things, we find there the principles of pure pagan 
despotism, and we see in reality, that modern 
legists have never ceased to apply, first to the 
government of the prince, afterwards to that of the 
citizens, this maxim — Whatever is pleasing to 
power has the force of law. 



334 The Peoples Ark. 

What do we find in modern law, almost wholly- 
drawn from Protestant writers, or those strongly- 
inclined to Protestantism ? On every page, violent 
invectives against clerical despotism, and the spirit 
of invasion and usurpation which tends to subject 
civil society to religion, instead of making religion 
subservient to civil society, as Christ has wished. 
Say to the man imbued with those principles, that 
to subject the Catholic religion to the civil power, 
is to make as many religions as there are deposi- 
taries of the civil power, and that nothing could be 
more opposed to religious liberty and the wishes 
of Christ; he will hardly listen to what you say, 
for it does not enter into his designs to preserve 
religious liberty or the wishes of Christ, but to 
defend the law against the priests' incurable ambi- 
tion. When I hear legists of this class speaking 
of their ardor for liberty, it has on me the same 
effect as to hear a courtezan preaching purity. 

Finally, what are the habits of those people, 
when religion does not keep them in her holy- 
guardianship ? Whatever we can imagine best 
calculated to falsify the mind and the tongue. 
Trained to defend all causes, they have only one 
anxiety — to acquire the reputation of discoursing 
eloquently on everything, and to cause the triumph 
of those who pay them. Proudhon asks some- 
where : "When a lawyer's tongue is in motion, 
who can say where it will stop?" I reply: Like 
a horse, with regard to the law, it will always go 
wrong : and will depart from the truth only to 
arrive at falsehood. 

Now that a constitutional charter has placed 



Twenty- Fourth Entertainment.. 335 

power in the hands of the most intrepid speech- 
makers, you are sure that the legists and lawyers 
will obtain the lead, and fall with great blows of 
laws upon the Church, as the Piedmontese rulers 
are now doing. 

In vain does France, who has preceded them 
in this way, but who has changed her mind, say 
to them : What are you doing there? It is false 
to say that the danger to states comes from the 
Church; do you not see socialism in arms! — 
"Socialism!" exclaim those ignoramuses smiling, 
"fear it, you who deliver your youth to the clerical 
faction; but we, men of progress, who have broken 
up the Jesuits like glass, and who, at this time, 
are turning out the bishops and mocking the 
pope, we have no fear. Against the enemies of 
the state we have the power of powers, that of 
constitutional liberties." 

What insolence and what imbecility! you ex- 
claim. Yes, but in laboring to satisfy their insen- 
sate hatred against the Church, those secularizers 
prepare their country for the speedy solution 
which Divine Providence has in store for Europe's 
great lawsuit. 

This solution, which all minds are seeking, is, 
I believe, well-known to me, my friends, and I 
could point it out to you, but as it should be 
the finishing-stroke of the Ark, I will first reply 
to the objections you may have yet to propose 
against the Catholic Church, and I beg you, gen- 
tlemen, to be good enough to point them out 
at the beginning of the next entertainment 



"^v^^S: 





TWZNTY-FIFTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Catholic Inquisition— Conduct towards the Church of all 
those who accuse her oe intolerance — the church's 
constant rule against infidels. 



MAYOR. 

N the division which Mr. Teacher and myself 
have made of the most serious objections 
which still remain against the great Church, 
the first and the most important one has fallen 
to me; this, sir, is the Inquisition. It is true 
to say, that ninety-nine hundredths of those who 
cry out against the Inquisition would be seriously 
embarrassed if we were to ask them what was 
that monster. The least ignorant believe they 
know, first, that it was a tribunal of the Middle 
Ages, composed of monks, and established by the 
pope and bishops to discover, torture, and burn 
heretics, philosophers, and such as were suspected 
of thinking evil in matters of religion ; secondly, 
that that institution, established to keep minds 
in perpetual infancy, covered Europe with funeral 
piles, particularly Spain, which it depopulated and 
impoverished in every way; thirdly, that without 
the reaction of Protestantism, which produced the 
enfranchisement of reason, we should be still 

330 



Twenty -Fifth Entertainment. 337 

bowed beneath the yoke of blind faith, and as the 
spirit of the Church never changes, the triumph 
of the clerical party would naturally bring back 
the reign of the Inquisition. In proof of this, 
they cite a number of facts, which they think go 
to show that the intolerant and domineering pre- 
tensions of the court of Rome are not reformed, 
and that if it no longer persecutes, it is less for 
want of will than of power. 

This, sir, is what is said. As for me, I am 
inclined to believe that those declamations are, for 
the most part, the effect of the ignorance and 
dishonesty of the liberal sect, and I acknowledge 
that I have a greater dread of the intolerance of 
modern liberal inquisitors than of that of the papal 
inquisitors. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Yes, sir, the horror attached to the Inquisition 
evinces gross ignorance of the nature of that insti- 
tution, and of the exigences of the epoch in which 
it appeared: the fear of its reestablishment can be 
seriously entertained only by fools. Before estab- 
lishing these two points, my friends, let us cast 
a glance over Europe of the present day; let us 
hear what is said, see what is done. 

From the north to the south, from the east 
to the west, what do we hear ? A general cry 
of rage and hatred against Roman intolerance, and 
the love of power inherent in the clerical faction. 
What do we see? The conspiracies of all the 
enemies of the Catholic Church to rekindle against 
her the scarcely extinguished torches of persecu- 
tion. 

29 



338 The Peoples Ark 

Let us begin with that England who boasts so 
much of her tolerance, because, that for the last 
forty years she has not oppressed her Catholic 
inhabitants with those penal laws, the most atro- 
cious that could have been suggested to heresy 
by the demon of fanaticism. 

Yielding to the earnest prayers and to the spirit- 
ual necessities of the English Catholics, placed up 
to that time under a provisionary and exceptional 
religious administration, Pius IX. finally granted 
them an ecclesiastical organization conformable to 
common law, after having taken all the measures 
that wisdom and prudence could suggest, in order 
that that act, irreproachable on the grounds of Eng- 
lish law, might in no way wound the susceptibili- 
ties of the British government. But what could be 
expected? For at least four years, English policy 
had been laboring to anglicanize and protestantize 
Italy, and, in particular, Rome, whence she had 
caused the pope to be expelled ; could she, then, 
without profound regret, see the pope, reentered 
into Rome, bear witness to the progress of popery 
in England by reestablishing the English Hie- 
rarchy? 

Then at a signal given by the ministerial bureaus, 
and repeated in all the pulpits of the Anglican 
Church, and those of the thousand sects dissent- 
ing from her, but always united against Rome, 
then, I say, arose a concert of howlings: "Down 
with the Papacy \ Death to the papists!" Then 
were enacted those scenes of the most savage 
fanaticism, outraging everywhere the religious con- 
victions of the Catholics, and imperilling their pro- 



Twenty- Fifth Entertainment. 339 

perties and lives. Then were presented those innu- 
merable addresses to the Queen and her ministers, 
to beg the reestablishment against popery of some 
of those statutes of the good virgin Elizabeth, who 
had caused the enemies of her spiritual supremacy 
to be embowelled alive. 

That that explosion of fanaticism did not suc- 
ceed in replacing the papists under the sanguinary 
reign of the Anglican inquisition is not, at least, 
the fault of the government, nor of the clergy, nor 
of the heretical population, but it is the fault of 
those Catholics, now so numerous in the three 
united kingdoms, in the colonies, and particularly 
in the army, that it is thought prudent to settle 
matters with them. 

Let us run over the countries of the North, 
where either heresy or schism is dominant, from 
the Low Countries even to Russia* 

If the Catholic Hollanders, thanks to the French 
revolution and the reign of the good king Louis 
Bonaparte, have been freed from the state of helot- 
ism in which they had been held for three cen- 
turies ■; if they finally see their civil and political 
rights guarded by the constitution, it is none the 
less notorious that Protestant tolerance continues 
to debar them from employments, and that electoral 
laws have been made expressly to exclude their 
candidates from the Chambers. Belgium, that 
nation so Catholic, which has made two revolu- 
tions to preserve her religious liberties, now sees 
herself despoiled of them by ministers, oppressors 
of the Church, in their triple quality of legists, 
sensualists, and liberals. If the Catholics are not 



340 The People s Ark. 

being persecuted in Sweden and Denmark, it is 
because the Protestant inquisition has constantly 
watched that popery might not raise its head in 
those countries. I do not know if the Danish 
government has effaced from its code a law decree- 
ing death to the priest or religious who should 
settle in that kingdom. As to Sweden, the supreme 
tribunal of Stockholm, upon the request of the 
Lutheran clergy, condemned to confiscation of goods 
and to perpetual banishment, the painter Nilson, guilty 
of having been converted to the Catholic faith. What 
can be said of the immense Russian empire, in 
which are tolerated all religions, even the grossest 
idolatry, with the sole exception of the Catholic, 
Apostolic and Roman religion, for whose annihila- 
tion has been employed, during the last half cen- 
tury, the most incredible mixture of cowardly 
deceptions and atrocious acts of violence ? 

Let us pass to Germany. If for three years the 
Catholic Church there has seen falling off those 
chains which had been riveted on her neck, feet 
and hands, by the tolerance of Protestant princes, 
and the crushing protection of the Austrian cabi- 
net, to whom does she owe it? First, to the cry 
of religious liberty raised by two illustrious victims 
of Prussian intolerance, the archbishops of Cologne 
and Posen ; secondly, to the revolutionary torment, 
which, by causing their German majesties to trem- 
ble, obliged them to momentarily remove the foot 
which they had on Catholic breasts; thirdly, to 
the energetic rising of her episcopate, and to the 
activity of her vast associations for the triumph of 
Catholic liberties; fourthly, to the personal inspi- 



Twenty -Fifth Entertainment. 341 

rations of the young emperor of Austria, abjuring 
the deplorable traditions of a government, which 
for the greater part of a century had been Catholic 
only in name. In fine, German Catholicity, 
stripped of all her property, of her establishments 
of education and benevolence, breathes for an 
instant; thanks to the condition of her oppressors, 
who have their feet in boiling water. 

Look at the Catholic populations of Switzerland, 
and tell me if the conservative and radical Protes- 
tants have spared them anything of what consti- 
tutes a perfect martyrdom. They have secularized, 
that is, have stolen all their ecclesiastical and 
monastical properties; proscribed, imprisoned and 
banished their bishops and religious; put up at 
public auction the ornaments of the sanctuary, 
and extended the proscription and confiscation to 
the wealthiest citizens. Two or three hundred 
wretches protected by the federal army, imposed 
at Freiburg a constitution worthy of the brigands 
who had conceived it, who executed it; and when 
after three years of frightful atrocities, from six- 
teen to eighteen thousand electors went to demand 
justice from the federal authorities, they were 
answered: "We can do nothing for you, but if you 
attempt to take justice into your own hands, we 
will crush you !" Here the Protestant Vaudois 
government orders Catholic priests to publish from 
the pulpit its religious commandment for the 
federal fast, and upon their refusal, expels them 
from their parishes ; there, or rather, everywhere, 
they established mixed schools to pervert Catholic 
youth, if they do not wish to be condemned to 
29* 



342 The Peoples Ark. 

ignorance. Finally, to cause the entrance of Pro- 
testantism, that is of contempt for all religion, into 
the bosom of the family, the federal powers make 
a law on mixed marriages. 

It is useless to speak of the Italy of legists, 
lawyers, and liberals, and of her constitutional 
Anglomaniacs of every kind. This so-called 
" Young Italy," which is nothing but a league of 
desperadoes, retrograding towards pagan barba- 
rism ; this Young Italy, I say, now concentrated 
in Piedmont, is admirably faithful to the device of 
its two chiefs, Mazzini and Lord Palmerston : To 
make an end, by all possible means, of the Catholic 
Church. 

One word now on Spain and Portugal. If 
Queen Isabella II., and her ministers, have had the 
prudence to arrest with the same blow the storm 
of religious persecution and the devastations of 
civil war, it is none the less true that the Church 
is still bleeding from the wounds inflicted on her, 
that her clergy still wait there for bread in return 
for what has been taken from them ; it is none the 
less true that Rome, in order to avert greater evils, 
will have to sign one of those concordats which 
justify the old proverb: " With our good Mother 
the Church, who cannot defend herself with loaded 
cannon, the essential thing is to drag from her by 
force, what cannot be obtained with her consent :" 
a proverb which has made the tour of Europe, but 
will also play it a bad turn, as I shall have the 
honor to tell you of in time. 

Portugal also, crushed as she is, wishes to dis- 
play her strength against Rome, and recalls her 



Twe7tty- Fifth Entertainment. 343 

ambassador, because the pope refuses to give sus- 
pected bishops to the Portuguese Catholics. 

If in this union of the oppressors of the Church 
I do not make the French government play a 
part, it is because France remains Catholic, des- 
pite its ancient would-be very Christian royalty; 
despite her first revolution, eminently antichris- 
tian, of her empire half-Christian, of her restora- 
tion overthrown in 1830, and her citizen-royalty 
swept away in 1848, and since then, a little against 
her inclination, but most certainly by the grace of 
God, a republic, and that that republic, not being 
easily managed by a party, necessarily expresses 
the real national spirit which remains Catholic. 
Thence those acts of Catholicism both within and 
without, which France performs by a sort of 
instinct, and under the pressure of events. If 
her return to a better system of politics is not 
sufficiently well-marked, among many well-known 
causes of her blindness there is one which I have 
already indicated, and which I will develop here- 
after; it is, that the great European lawsuit is not 
yet sufficiently prepared and paid for. Before 
the grand reconstitution, or the final discomfiture 
of which France, according to all probabilities, 
will give the signal, there are some demolitions to 
be made here or there. 

Behold, then, all the governments of Europe, 
who wage a war more or less cunning and violent 
against Catholicity, yet all crying out against 
Catholic intolerance. Everywhere we are op- 
pressed, and everywhere the oppressors point us 
out as the irreconcilable enemies of public liber- 



344 The Peoples Ark. 

ties. Everywhere we see our bishops, priests and 
religious outraged, robbed, proscribed and sub- 
jected to the most iniquitous inquisitorial mea- 
sures; everywhere those brigand legislators, after 
having invaded our religious properties, force the 
sanctuary of our consciences, rob us of our chil- 
dren's souls to deliver them to the corrupter; and 
nevertheless, those enraged despots never cease 
to howl against the usurpations of the priesthood, 
and its efforts to subject us again to the yoke 
of the Inquisition. 

Well, my friends, what you see to-day is the 
exact image of what has been done at all times. 
There has always been an agreement among the 
persecutors of the Church to cast upon their 
victim the reproach of persecution and violence. 
When we read the edicts of the first persecutors 
of Christianity, from Nero to Maxentius, we there 
see that those Christians, who everywhere allowed 
themselves to be slaughtered like lambs, even 
when they filled the empire and formed entire 
legions of the army: — we there see, I say, that 
those Christians are an execrable faction, guilty 
of the most abominable excesses, bound by fright- 
ful oaths, and enemies to all law. What was the 
Catholic Church and her most illustrious defenders 
when the Arian heresy, mistress of the throne 
under Constantine, Valens, etc., persecuted to 
extremity the adorers of the Word, and gorged 
itself with their spoils and their blood ? She was, 
according to the Arians and their emperors, a 
mass of sacrilegious factions, of enemies of God 
and men, of corrupters and oppressors of eon- 



Twenty-Fifth Entertainment. 345 

sciences. The great Athanasius, on whose head 
they set a price, was a monster who outraged 
women and cut off the head and hands of Arian 
bishops to use them in magical operations. 

When was it that they declaimed with greatest 
fury against the execrable intolerance of the popes, 
of the Catholic clergy, and the pretended thirst 
that they had for the blood of heretics and unbe- 
lievers ? Was it not during that sixteenth century, 
when, in all Protestant states without exception, 
atrocious laws, pitilessly applied, condemned to 
frightful torments the popish clergy, and gave the 
Catholic populations the alternative to abjure 
their faith, or undergo penalties, the mildest of 
which were the prison, banishment, and the confis- 
cation of goods. 

My friends, what could you expect ? It enters 
into the temporal destiny of the Church to be, like 
her Divine Founder, a prey to the most atrocious 
calumnies, to the most iniquitous, most brutal 
hatreds, as it is the spirit of all her persecutors to 
accuse her of the evil that they do. She has, in 
the eyes of all her enemies, the unpardonable fault 
of being the organ of the immutable law of truth 
and justice, which confounds all errors, condemns 
all iniquity. 

What is religious error, however little wilful it 
may be ? It is the love of falsehood, and conse- 
quently, the hatred of truth. Schism and heresy 
can sustain themselves, and delude their partisans, 
only by covering themselves with some shreds of 
the religion of Jesus Christ : when the Catholic 
religion appears, those shreds fall off, and there is 



346 The Peoples Ark. 

something in the human conscience whicn says: 
44 Behold true Christianity; the rest is but an un- 
worthy mockery !" How could you expect that 
schism and heresy would not employ all their 
efforts to calumniate and change the nature of 
Catholicity, when they cannot do worse? It is 
part of their existence. 

What is iniquity ? It is the love of evil, and, 
consequently, the hatred of the law that condemns 
evil, and commands good. Those whose works are 
evil, as the Gospel tells us, prefer darkness to light;* 
to show them the latter, is to exasperate them. 

In fine, it is not the Catholic Church who takes 
pleasure in tormenting the enemies of her doc- 
trine and laws, but it is those enemies, who, 
tormented by the brilliancy of her light and her 
charity, incessantly react against her with, indescrib- 
able fury, like those demoniacs who hastened to 
our Saviour, and foaming at the mouth, cried out: 
" What is there in common between thee and us, 
and why dost thou torment us before the time?"f 

Now, my friends, let us enter more deeply into 
the question. I begin by proposing three facts 
of historical notoriety to whoever has read history 
elsewhere than in the romances of our enemies. 

First: the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church 
during the eighteen centuries of her existence has 
never employed force, nor authorized the employ- 
ment of force, to impose her doctrines on the 
sectarians of other religions. 

Secondly : if, in the thirteenth century, the 

* St. John iii. 19. f St. Matth. viii. 29. 



Twenty-Fifth Entertainment. 347 

Church had recourse to the extraordinary means 
of the Inquisition, it was not to compromise the 
liberty of thought, and the true progress of science, 
but rather to preserve religion, society, and all the 
elements of Christian civilization against the bru- 
tal aggressions of the most savage and fanatical 
sectaries. 

Thirdly : the abuses and severities of the Catho- 
lic Inquisition to defend the religion which had 
enlightened and civilized Europe, were nothing 
compared with the atrocities committed by the 
legislators and inquisitors of heresy, schism and 
free-thinking philosophy, in order to establish their 
absurd, immoral religions, and reconduct us to 
barbarism. 

As to the first proposition, that the Catholic 
Church has never approved, that in order to lead 
infidels to the Christian faith other means should 
be employed than instruction, edification, and pa- 
tience; it can be contested only through ignorance 
or dishonesty. It is impossible to find, either in 
the history of the Church or in the collections of 
the ordinances of popes and councils, anything that 
authorizes evangelization by way of constraint, but 
it is easy to show in the canon law, the express 
prohibitions, frequently under pain of excom- 
munication, issued in the sixth century by St. 
Gregory the Great; in the seventh, by the Spanish 
bishops ; in the twelfth, by Clement III. ; in the 
fourteenth, by Clement VI. ; in the sixteenth, by 
Julius III., against molesting the Jews in the ex- 
ercise of their worship, or baptizing their children 
without their consent. If you, Mr. Mayor, know 



348 The Peoples Ariz. 

on this subject of any facts urged by the enemies of 
the Church, I beg you to acquaint me with them. 

MAYOR. 

I believe I remember having heard them re- 
proach Constantine and his successors with having 
contributed not a little to the conversion of the 
pagans by their laws against idolatry, and in favor 
of Christianity. They also vaguely accuse the 
first Catholic missionaries of America of having 
concurred by their fanaticism, to the oppression 
and massacre of the idolatrous Indians. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

To attribute the ruin of paganism to the laws of 
the Christian Caesars, is to go against all religious 
evidence. One hundred and twenty years at least 
before Constantine's conversion^ Tertullian did not 
fear to say to the Emperor Severus, in his elo- 
quent apology: "We are not of yesterday, and we 
fill your cities, your colonies, the army, the palace, 
the senate, the forum ; we leave you only your 
temples." In the century which separates Septi- 
mus Severus from Diocletian, Christianity had only 
made greater progress. In the year 303, at the 
commencement of the great ten years' persecution, 
known as the era of the Martyrs, Diocletian saw 
his house a prey to the Christian superstition ; he 
found it even in his bed.* Thus the famous in- 
scription by which he announced the abolition of 
Christianity, expressed only a vain desire, and the 



* Prisca, his wife, and Valeria, his daughter, were Chris- 
tians. 



Twenty-Fifth Entertainment. 3 49 

frightful butcheries by which he sought to realize 
it, were only the last convulsions of idolatry, strug- 
gling in the victorious embrace of Christianity. 

Nothing is better proved : at Constantine's ac- 
cession, Christ reigned everywhere except on the 
throne; He had reserved that for His last conquest, 
in order that no one might be able to attribute 
His victories to the throne. 

To say, that, when once mistress of the sceptre, 
the Church evangelized by force of laws, is an 
insolent lie against history, against the well-known 
laws of the Caesars, and those of the Church. 
What did she say to Constantine, who, with the 
fervor of a neophyte, demanded what he should 
do ? — " Give an edict of universal tolerance to 
permit Christians to publicly profess their worship 
and to build churches." Constantine issued that 
edict, and induced Licinius, his brother-in-law .and 
colleague, to sign it. Become sole master of the 
empire, he made great donations to the churches, 
and ordered the restoration of all the goods taken 
from them in the late persecutions. He freed the 
ministers of the Church from the greater part of 
public charges, so that they might be able to attend 
without obstacle to their ministry; this was justice, 
no citizen being obliged to bear a double burden. 

Regarding the pagans he was told: "Limit 
yourself to restraining their violence, and while 
you show your contempt for their idols, beware 
lest you render them dearer to them by forcibly 
destroying them." Thus it was done. The 
Church changed nothing of her tactics against 
idols, attacking them always in their first temples — 
30 



350 The Peoples Ark. 

ignorance of the mind and corruption of the heart. 
Far from making them Christians against their 
will, she required of the pagans, except in danger 
of death, long trials before they were granted the 
grace of Baptism. When they presented them- 
selves, they were made to submit to an interrogatory 
to assure her of the rectitude of their intentions; 
after which they were admitted among the number 
of the catechumens or postulants ^ obliged to follow 
a course of instruction, and to renounce supersti- 
tious practices, with full liberty to abandon the 
catechism and the trials when such was their good 
pleasure. If they persevered and were judged 
worthy of baptism, the same ceremonial as that of 
our day was followed, with this difference, that, 
instead of godfathers and godmothers, it w r as the 
catechumen that replied. 

"What do you ask of the Church of God ?" 
" Faith."— " And what will faith give you?" 
"Eternal life." — "Yes, but in order to attain eter- 
nal life you must keep the commandments." — 
Then followed the profession of faith, the triple 
renouncing of Satan, his pomps, his works, etc. 
So long as the holy unction and baptismal water 
had not made the catechumen a living member 
of Jesus Christ, and a child of God and of the 
Church, he was free to return to the idols without 
incurring any spiritual penalty, in virtue of that 
principle as ancient as Catholicism : The Church 
does not judge those who do not belong to her. Her 
mission is only to preach to and exhort them. 

Behold how the Church acted towards her exe- 
cutioners. If we except a few excesses of zeal, 



Twenty -Fifth Entertainment. 351 

very rare, and which cannot without injustice 
be imputed to the body, the pagans were so little 
disquieted, that in Rome, under the eyes of the 
Popes St. Sylvester I., St. Mark, St. Julius I., Libe- 
rius, St. Damasus, St. Siricius, who was promoted 
to the Holy See in 385, the greater number of 
the Roman senators remained idolaters and well- 
worthy of being such, supported their temples and 
lavished sacrifices at the public cost. Finally, 
Theodosius the Great, in a visit to the Senate 
in 389, after having patiently listened to and 
refuted the partisans of a worship, absurd and 
generally despised, ended by saying : " You are 
free to continue your sacrifices, but the Emperor 
Valentinian and myself, who entertain only horror 
for your worship, can no longer allow the public 
treasury to defray the expenses of it. Besides, the 
charge has become too heavy; menaced as we 
are by barbarians, we have more need of soldiers 
than of your sacrifices. ,, Who would not admire 
the extreme patience of the Christians, who during 
seventy-seven years had indirectly contributed to 
the support of a worship which they regarded 
w 7 ith horror, and from which they had had so 
much to suffer? 

Nothing could be imagined more iniquitous or 
more imprudent than the accusation against the 
Spanish missionaries in America. Against those 
lying romancers who have made them fanatical 
murderers, it will suffice for me to oppose the 
authority of Robertson, an historian of America, 
a Protestant minister of Scotland, and passably 
antipapistical. 



352 The Peoples Ark. 

"It is with yet more injustice," says he, "that 
many writers have attributed to the intolerant 
spirit of the Roman religion the destruction of 
the Americans, and have accused the Spanish 
ecclesiastics of having excited their compatriots 
to massacre those innocent people as idolaters and 
enemies of God. The first missionaries in Amer- 
ica, although simple and unlettered, were pious 
men. They early espoused the cause of the 
Indians, and defended that people against the 
calumnies with which the conquerors tried to 
blacken them, representing them as incapable of 
ever being formed to social life, or of understand- 
ing the principles of religion, and as an imperfect 
species of men, whom nature had marked with 
the seal of servitude. . . . They were the ministers 
of peace to the Indians, and always tried to draw 
the iron rod out of the hands of their oppressors. 
It was to their powerful mediation the Americans 
owed all the regulations that tended to sweeten 
the rigor of their lot."* 

After having recognized this first fact, that the 
Church has never had recourse to force to reduce 
infidels under the yoke of faith, let us see, my 
friends, why she has appeared to depart from this 
principle with regard to heretics. This shall 
form the subject of our next entertainment. 



Robertson. History of America. Book viii., t. ii., p. 345. 




= -;- 





TWENTY-SIXTH ENTERTAINMENT. 




ej a) 



Why the Inquisition was established — Character and 
struggles of the mlddle xa.ges — comparison oe that epoch 
with ours — One word on the Spanish Inquisition — Roman 
Inquisition. 

AS the ecclesiastical Inquisition established 
to constrain liberty of thought, as its ene- 
mies pretend, and was it its mission to 
inquire of every one what they thought in 
matters of religion? 

No, evidently not. Ecclesiastical justice, any 
more than secular justice, has not the absurd pre- 
tension to penetrate to the bottom of your soul, 
and to know what passes therein. It knows only 
facts which appear outwardly, according to that 
maxim as ancient as ecclesiastical tribunals : Ec- 
clesia non judicat de internis. Think whatever you 
please ; no one can see your thoughts save God, 
the supreme Judge of consciences ; for the con- 
fessor himself can penetrate into your conscience 
only so far as you wish to introduce him into it, 
and he judges only of those things you are pleased 
to submit to his judgment. 

Was the Inquisition established to arrest the 
progress of minds in the career of letters, of sci- 
ences, of philosophy, and to retain the human 



30* 



353 



354 The Peoples Ark. 

reason captive in the swathing bands of the cate- 
chism, as has been written and said by so many 
bigoted writers ? 

No, evidently not. It is precisely under the 
frightful reign of the Inquisition, that is to say, 
during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen- 
turies, that we see the European mind take the 
most marvellous flights in every direction. It 
was under the extinguisher of the theocracy and the 
Inquisition, to use the language of the bigots, that 
all Europe was covered with schools and univer- 
sities, in which an innumerable world of professors 
and students explored to an unheard-of depth, 
all questions imaginable in matters of theology, 
philosophy, politics, etc. 

I say, "an innumerable world of students/' for 
I think I can prove that the present population 
of Europe, numerically far superior to that of the 
Middle Ages, does not give half so many students 
as that age of ignorance. It will suffice for the 
moment to observe that France, who then saw 
twenty universities arise in her bosom, had a 
school of the second order, in which were to be 
found nearly ten thousand students* 

As to the scientific monuments which the Middle 
Ages have bequeathed to our libraries, you cannot 
judge of them yourselves, my friends; trust then, 
to Plato Punchinello, who has lived in the company 
of the great men of that epoch, and who often asks 
himself: How many dozen of our most renowned 
savants would it take to make a St. Thomas of 



* School at the Monastery of Floury. 



Twenty-Sixth Entertainment 355 

Aquin, a St. Bonaventure, a Vincent de Beauvais, 
a Gerbert, (Pope Sylvester II.,) a Roger Bacon, 
etc., etc. ? Contemplate also those old Cathedrals, 
•prodigious libraries of animated, speaking stones, 
which our artists can scarcely decipher, and which 
seem to say to us : You are truly the puny chil- 
dren of your truly great fathers! 

In fine, the Inquisition in no way prevented the 
Middle Ages from being what it was in all reality, 
as the Protestant Guizot tells us, "The epoch of 
the greatest industrial and intellectual activity, an 
epoch of voyages, enterprises, discoveries, and in- 
ventions of all kinds."* Far from hindering the 
progress of minds towards great things, the In- 
quisition contributed much to it, as I shall prove 
to you, my friends, by a comparison. 

The Europe of the Middle Ages, of which I have 
already given you a slight glimpse, f was a vast 
school of half-savage children, fearfully undisci- 
plined, capable of everything, of evil more than 
of good. What was necessary to assure order, 
and protect studies in that busy crowd? There 
was needed a rod to say to all, but particularly to 
the mutinous: "If you disturb the class, beware !" 
Without that rod confided to vigorous hands, what 
would have happened ? The most wicked youths, 
springing on the benches and putting an end to 
the studies, would have divided the class into 
parties; those parties, after having fought with the 
tongue, would have thrown at each other their 



* Course of Modern History, Lesson xi. 
f Beveil du Peuple, Lesson x. 



356 The People's Ark. 

books and inkstands, the benches would have 
followed the books, the pieces of benches would 
have broken their heads ; and as blood demands 
blood, extermination would have been stopped 
only by the intervention of a bully, exclaiming: 
" To the fire with the books ! People were not 
made to study or to reason, but to labor and to 
eat; death to whosoever shall attempt to teach 
them the alphabet!" 

Whoever knows a little of the Middle Ages and 
of the character of the enraged mastiffs who 
labored to tear in pieces the Catholic religion, in 
order to establish in blood, millions of stables for 
swine, will, I think, agree with me, that the rod 
of the Inquisition was, at that time, a great instru- 
ment of salvation for religion, for society, for 
letters, science, and all the elements of civilization. 

Against whom, in fact, was that rod raised? Was 
it against those honest thinkers who recorded in 
their books or expounded in the chairs of univer- 
sities, the fruits of conscientious study? No, but 
against a host of absurd, infamous, fanatical secta- 
ries, who forced themselves everywhere, under the 
mask of piety, and then, when strong enough, 
joined in the most brutal violences against those 
persons and things held inviolable by religion 
and morality; sectaries powerfully protected by a 
nobility without faith, morals, or humanity, and 
desirous of changing the lower classes into galley- 
slaves charged to provide for the wants and 
luxuries of their masters. 

What was the creed of the Albigensian sect, 
which was as the centre of all others, and which 



Twenty- Sixth Entertainment. 357 

particularly exercised its fury in the south of 
France? It taught that the physical world and 
the human body are the work of an evil genius; 
that Christ dead on Calvary is a demon ; the cross 
the character of the beast of the Apocalypse, mar- 
riage a prostitution, etc.* 

The modern historian who is so prodigal of 
antitheses and flashes of wit, in order to embellish 
while disguising the history of those sectaries, and 
make the nobility of the south, who patronized 
them, a school of great thinkers, acknowledge, 
nevertheless, that their manner of evangelizing 
was in harmony with the brutality of their dogmas. 

" Those rioters/' says he, " maltreated the priests 
like the peasants, dressed their wives in the con- 
secrated vestments, beat the clerks, and made 
them sing mass in derision. It was one of their 
pleasures to sully and break the images of Christ, 
to break off the legs and arms. They were dear 
to princes, precisely because of their impiety which 
rendered them insensible to ecclesiastical censures. 
Impious as our moderns, and savage as barbarians, 
they cruelly oppressed the country, stealing, de- 
manding ransom, murdering at random, waging 
a horrible war." In short, M. Michelet establishes 
very clearly, that the result of the doctrine and 
exploits of the Albigensian sect was to implant in 
the south; with the morals of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah, the benefits of Moorish civilization, and the 



* On the origin of those sects, on their doctrines and means 
of propagandism, see M. Hurter, Hist, of Innocent III., t. iii. 

p. 272. 



358 The Peoples Ark. 

creeds of Asia, and to make Toulouse the Rome 
of a Mahometan Church.* 

After sixty years of useless attempts made by 
the popes and some Christian princes to enlighten 
and lead back those Mahometans within the fold, 
Innocent III. saw himself obliged to employ 
against them the same means that had succeeded 
against those foreign infidels. He, in 1207, pub- 
lished a crusade against the Albigenses, giving 
to his legates and generals the wisest instructions 
to avoid a great effusion of blood. If his direc- 
tions were not followed, and if to the excesses 
of the heretics the crusaders opposed other ex- 
cesses, all things being well considered, we must 
acknowledge that it was less the fault of the chiefs 
than of circumstances. 

It was only then, that to prevent the return 
of those sad wars, in which some of the preachers 
of the new religions led to the combat their 
innumerable dupes, and caused the loss of both 
body and soul, that was conceived the idea of 
establishing the tribunal of the Inquisition, whose 
special mission was to discover and prosecute 
those fanatical corrupters and incendiaries of states. 

Great evils call for great remedies. Religious 
policy and surveillance of heretics had, up to that 
time, been exercised in each ecclesiastical province 
by the bishops and their ordinary tribunals, refer- 
ring to the final judgment of the pope, the erring 
whom they had not been able to reclaim by mild- 
ness, and who had resisted their condemnation 

* M. Michelet : History of France, t. ii., p. 400. 



Twenty-Sixth Entertainment. 359 

in the first and second instance. This means, 
sufficient in ordinary times, was not so in an 
epoch full of perils, and in which the bishops 
who did not connive at the evil, rarely enjoyed 
the independence and concurrence necessary to 
labor efficaciously for its 'repression. This it was 
that determined the great Pope Innocent III. to 
create the extraordinary jurisdiction of the Holy 
Office, and to confide its exercise to religious 
named by him, agreed to by the sovereign and 
bishops of the place, subject in their proceedings 
against heretics, to forms regulated by the canons, 
and to special rules laid down by the pope and 
the councils of the times; rules, the first of which, 
according to the Council of Narbonne, was — "Con- 
demn no one .unless upon conviction, since it is 
better to allow a crime to go unpunished than to 
condemn an innocent person." 

And how did the inquisitors proceed? They 
commenced by publishing " The Edict of Faith," 
commanding all the faithful under pain of excom- 
munication, to denounce within a brief period, 
heretics, fabricators of heresy, and persons guilty 
of certain excesses implying the suspicion of 
heresy. To that summons was added "The Edict 
of Grace," granting pardon to all those who, 
within the space of thirty days, should confess 
their crimes and reveal their accomplices. 

The Edict of Grace being despised, they cited 
to appear, or if necessary, brought by force, those 
persons pointed out by public rumor and reliable 
information as propagators of heresy. Once con- 
victed, either on their spontaneous confession. 



360 The People s Ark. 

(which always availed to a diminution of punish- 
ment,) or by means of the law, they were exhorted 
to repent, to abjure, and accept the ecclesiastical 
penalties, which consisted in prayers, fasts, pil- 
grimages, in a detention more or less lengthy in 
the ecclesiastical prisons, perpetual only for the 
greatest criminals. 

The guilty who obstinately persisted in the 
satanical idea of destroying the religion of Jesus 
Christ, to substitute for it their visions or those 
of their companions, or who, after having once 
abjured heresy, were convicted of having fallen 
into it again, were declared by the tribunal of 
the Inquisition to be impenitent or relapsed here- 
tics, and, as such, abandoned to secular justice, 
with a recommendation to spare the lives and 
limbs of the culprits. 

Such, my friends, was the method of the Inqui- 
sition in the epoch in which it exercised its greatest 
rigors. Those who have pretended that it con- 
demned to the fire, have plainly lied. We can 
defy any one to cite a single reliable fact in proof 
of that impudent falsehood. Hence this absurd 
accusation is now generally abandoned by who- 
ever does not wish to be convicted of ignorance 
or dishonesty? But behold what they say: The 
abandonment to secular justice, pronounced by 
the inquisitors, was equivalent to a death-warrant, 
and the prayer which they addressed to the lay- 
tribunal, to exercise goodness and mercy towards 
the guilty, was only a ridiculous formality, which 
availed nothing to the unfortunate creature con- 
ducted to the funeral-pile. 



Twenty-Sixth E?itertainment. 361 

To this I answer: No, the merciful request of 
the inquisitors did not prevent the secular judges 
from doing their duty, in applying the law of that 
time, which everywhere decreed the penalty of fire 
against the inventors of new religions. But it is 
none the less true, that the secular power remained 
perfectly free to apply the penalty or commute it, 
and that the Church expressed her desire to miti- 
gate that terrible legislation ; a desire whose sin- 
cerity could not be doubted by those who knew 
the constant spirit of the Church, and the efforts 
that she had made more than once, particularly 
in the Council of Tarragona, in 1242, to substitute 
perpetual imprisonment of the relapsed, in place 
of abandonment to the secular arm. It now only 
remains to be examined, why the civil legislators 
of the Middle Ages showed themselves so severe 
against the incorrigible enemies of the common 
law, and why the Church, then so influential, did 
not more efficaciously oppose the excessive rigor 
of those laws. 

The first quality of legislation being its propor- 
tion to the intellectual, moral, and social state of 
the people governed, common sense requires that 
in order to judge impartially the legislation of the 
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, we 
must transport ourselves to that epoch. They 
were decidedly Christian in belief, but not equally 
so in morality, customs, and social institutions. 
Religious convictions were sound, lively, and pro- 
found, but their very energy, joined to the remains 
of barbarous severity still remaining in their cha- 
racter, easily led them into inexcusable severities. 
31 



362 The Peoples Ark. 

Among a hundred examples which might be re- 
lated, there is one which plainly shows the differ- 
ence then existing between the spirit of the Church 
and that of the best of princes, regarding punish- 
ment for outrages inflicted on religion. 

Louis IX., so worthy, in every sense, of being 
canonized at his death by the general voice of his 
people and his contemporaries, before being so by 
the judgment of the Church, was led to publish 
a law condemning public blasphemers to be burned 
on the lips with a red-hot iron. That law startled 
Pope Clement IV., who hastened to solicit its 
repeal; this was granted him by a new law, *which, 
for the punishment of burning, substituted fine, 
imprisonment, or scourging, according to the con- 
dition of the guilty. But before he obtained that 
alleviation, the pontiff, fearing the example of so 
great a king might be contagious, had written to 
the King of Navarre, on the 12th of July, 1268, to 
conjure him not to imitate in this the illustrious King 
of the French* 

With that propensity to exaggeration in good as 
well as in evil, that can be observed everywhere in 
that epoch of effervescence, we must understand 
that it was not so easy for the Church to com- 
pletely master those turbulent generations. To 
ask why it was that she did not sooner correct the 
numerous vestiges of barbarism which we observe 
in the feudal times, in its laws and traditions, 
particularly in the administration of criminal jus- 
tice; here, a fearful indulgence of assassination; 

* Universal History of the Catholic Church. By IT Abbe 
Rohrbaeher. 



Twenty- Sixth Entertainment. 363 

there, an atrocious cruelty in the punishment of 
theft ; to ask this, I say, is to prove that we know 
neither the times nor the men. As well might we 
ask why our most laborious pastors, and those most 
worthy of their holy mission, instead of making 
our children, in a few months, Christians fully 
enlightened and ornamented with every virtue, 
employ in that work eight or ten years, and very 
often lose all their pains. 

Behold the comparison of which I avail myself 
in order to give you a somewhat just idea of the 
society of the Middle Ages, and of what distin- 
guished it from ours in good as well as in evil. 

Society, anterior to the sixteenth century, was a 
young tree full of promise, enlivened by great 
abundance of Christian sap; it promised an ad- 
mirable harvest of excellent fruit of all kinds, with 
which it was already laden in prospective, but for 
want of the time necessary to the complete elabo- 
ration of the sap and the maturity of its fruits, 
they were sour, green, retaining as much of the 
wild stock of barbarism as of the Christian graft. 

Modern society is the same tree, which, notwith- 
standing the fearful storm that three centuries 
ago broke a part of its branches, has, none the 
less, given most fair and beautiful fruits, but ar- 
rested in its development and tainted by the worm 
of doubt, it languishes, its fruit diminishes, and 
is corrupted, while the sprouts of barbarism, rising 
around it on every side, are on the point of 
stifling it, and bringing on it the decree of the 
Heavenly Agriculturist: It is dead, cast it into 
the fire ! 



364 The Peoples Ark. 

In a word, our ancestors were Christian in 
foundation, barbarous in form; we ourselves are 
Christian in form, barbarous in foundation. The 
foundation having a necessary tendency to deter- 
mine the form, they advanced towards a limited 
civilization; we tend towards unexampled barbarism. 
Let us prove this by what was then done, and by 
what is being done at present. In the Middle 
Ages, the sovereign, the nobility and the people 
were all good Christians by faith; that is, they 
believed that Jesus Christ is God, that His religion 
is the greatest benefit that has been given us by 
Heaven, the treasure of treasures for time and 
eternity, and that, consequently, the enemies of 
the true religion are the most cruel enemies of 
God and man. And they were right. 

They believed that good morals and virtuous 
habits being the fruit of sound doctrines, the 
integrity of these was necessary to public morality; 
that to allow a few wicked heads to destroy in 
the minds of the masses, for the profit of their 
pride, the fundamental law of right and of duty, 
and to substitute for it opinions subversive of all 
civil and religious order, was to introduce anarchy 
and provoke massacres. In this they were very 
right, and the conduct of their sectaries was well 
calculated to confirm them in the idea. 

From all this, our ancestors concluded that the 
incorrigible corrupters of religion were worthy 
of the punishment of the greatest criminals, and 
as their penal code added to the final punishment 
a fearful increase of tortures, they had no scruple 
in condemning to fire those whom they, with 



Twenty-Sixth Entertainment 365 

reason, held to be the most dangerous incendia- 
ries. It would, without doubt, have been better 
to reclaim those fanatics and treat them as diseased 
minds, than to have exalted them by a death 
which their followers transformed into martyr- 
dom. This was, in reality, the wise policy that 
had been adopted by the Church, the principle 
of whose penitential system was to replace the 
penalty of death by public penance, and to exercise 
severity towards the guilty, only to lead them 
to repentance and voluntary expiation ; as has 
been demonstrated by the learned Thomassin, and 
as M. Guizot also has observed. * But should 
we be surprised that the secular judges of the 
Middle Ages had not adopted the just medium 
of wisdom and moderation, when we know that 
the greater part of the legislators of the eighteenth 
century punished with death, not only the crime 
of coining false money, but also domestic theft, 
the smuggling of salt, etc., and inflicted the fright- 
ful torture of the wheel for an attempt at assas- 
sination, even when unsuccessful? 

In a word, it is incontestable that our ancestors 
were slowly coming forth from the land of bar- 
barism and still retained a leaven of its customs, 
which they found it difficult to shake 01F. But we 
who are so proud of our civilization, whither are 
we going, with our laws founded on atheism or 
legal indifferentism? We allow every one to pub- 
lish and teach whatever he wishes in matters of 



* See Thomassin in his great work on the Discipline of the 
Church. — Guizot: Course of Modern History, Lesson vi. 
3i* 



366 The Peoples Ark. 

religion, and if there be some restrictions to this 
liberty, we are careful that they be against the 
Church ; then when the flood of demoralization 
can no longer be restrained by ordinary checks ; 
when the inquisitors of the police and of secular 
justice, after having filled the prisons and peniten- 
tiaries, and reddened the scaffold with the blood 
of the most criminal, at length are overpowered; 
when the masses, freed from all religious belief, 
and fanaticized by the preachers of the club or the 
tavern, arm themselves to cause the triumph of 
theft, lawlessness and carnage, our political chiefs 
publish the crusade against the enemies of order ; 
armies ten times more numerous than that of 
Simon de Montfort (Chief of the crusade against 
the Albigenses) march against the new sectaries, 
murder them and are murdered by them, and in 
one day, are exterminated more men, some inno- 
cent, others led astray, than the Middle Ages ever 
burned incorrigible villains. 

To judge of our ancestors' policy and of our 
own only by the number of victims, on which side 
is to be found the greatest amount of ignorance 
and barbarity ? 

In reply to this, I beg you, Mr. Mayor, to tell 
us what is the presumed number of obstinate or 
relapsed heretics delivered by the inquisitors to 
the secular arm, even according to those calcula- 
tions least deserving of credit. 

MAYOR. 

To tell the truth, sir, I have heard and read on 
this subject only the most vague accounts. Gene- 



^Twenty-Sixth Entertainment. 367 

rally speaking, the enemies of the Inquisition are 
more profuse in declamations than in computa- 
tions. From Simon de Montfort's expedition 
against the Albigenses, in the beginning of the 
thirteenth century, to the death of John Huss and 
Jerome of Prague at Constance in 1415, they tell 
of thousands of heretics delivered to the flames 
here and there, particularly in the South. But the 
most rapacious Inquisition should have been that 
of Spain. I remember that one of her late histo- 
rians, who had himself been secretary of the Inqui- 
sition, but no lover of it, estimates the total number 
of those condemned by the Spanish Inquisition 
during three centuries, at upwards of three hundred 
thousand, among whom more than thirty thousand 
were burnt in person, from seventeen to eighteen 
hundred burnt in effigy, and the rest condemned 
to divers punishments.* 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

As to the Spanish Inquisition, which is inces- 
santly thrown in the face of the Church, this is, 
my friends, what should be first answered, relying 
on the historical notoriety of the fact. Erected in 
1478 by the concurrence of the two powers, the 

* Let us cite Llorente's calculation : 

Condemned to be burned in person, . . 31,912 

" " " in effigy, . . 17,659 

u to rigorous penalties,. . . 291,450 



Total, 341,021 
— Critical History of the Spanish Inquisition, by D. John A. 
Llorente. 



368 the Peoples Ark. 

tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition was withdrawn 
from pontifical jurisdiction in 1498, by a royal 
pragmatic sanction, forbidding to the condemned 
any appeal to the court of Rome. This was evi- 
dently the result of the briefs and bulls of the 
popes of that time, cited even by Llorente.* It 
is true that this writer, in his quality of ultra-liberal 
priest, cordially hated the Church and the popes, 
and did not hesitate to attribute to the avarice of 
the Roman Court, its facility in giving absolution 
to appellants.f But you should know, my friends, 
that the ambition and cupidity of the Catholic 
clergy, and particularly of their chief, are the 
favorite theme of all bigoted writers ; with this 
they explain everything, even the services rendered 
to humanity at the price of sacerdotal lives. If we 
count by millions our martyrs of faith and charity, 
it was not that they had so much love for God 
and men, it was because they had a passion for 
ruling over others and enriching themselves ! 
What could you expect, my friends ? The worthy 
castigation of the howling mob is neither my 
affair nor yours ; it is the task of the eternal Cor- 
rector of incorrigible sinners. 

The Spanish Inquisition having, then, been from 
the year 1498 an institution separated from, and 
independent of the head of the Church, the latter 
is responsible for nothing, since the Church an- 
swers only for her acts; she tolerated the harsh 
laws of the Middle Ages, doing all that depended 



* Critical History of the Spanish Inquisition, — Appendix, 
t Ibid. t. i. 



Twenty-Sixth Entertainment. 369 

on her to mitigate it. Nevertheless, in the interest 
of truth and for the defence of one of the noblest 
nations of the Catholic world, let us sum up in 
a few words what history tells us, and what has 
been written by the most illustrious writers of 
Spain and elsewhere, to vindicate the heroic penin- 
sula from the reproach of savage barbarism, attri- 
buted to it by all the apologists of our modern 
cruelties. 

Behold what an educated Spaniard would be 
perfectly right in saying openly, to all the nations 
of Europe, without fear of contradiction, except 
from fools : 

" Nations of Europe, I do not wish to discuss 
with you a would-be Critical History of the Spanish 
Inquisition, miserably compiled by a miserable 
writer, worthy of placing his ignorance and dis- 
honesty at the service of the enemies of his religion 
and his country. I am well content to accept his 
calculations, however suspected they may be, even 
by the least judicious reader, who is willing to abide 
by the researches of Llorente's work. From 148 1 
to 1 78 1, the time of the last bloody auto-da-fe , the 
inquisitors had caused nearly thirty-two-thousand 
victims to be led to the fire. And why ? To 
defend from the attacks of heresy, Judaism and 
Islamism, not only the Catholic faith, which was 
the soul of our nationality, but also letters, science, 
industry and commerce, which lived and prospered 
only beneath the sun of internal peace. 

"As to those who pretend that the decay and 
impoverishment of Spain are the work of the In- 
quisition, they are evidently stupid men, who do 



370 The People s Ark. 

not know the first word of our history. Who 
then can be ignorant that the Golden Age of our 
literature of all kinds, of our political, maritime, 
commercial and industrial preponderance, was 
coincident with the reign of Philip II., the most 
earnest protector of the Inquisition ? 

" Now let us see what you Germans, French and 
English were doing while barbarous Spain was 
engaged in such noble works, under the shadow 
of that institution which protected her faith with 
the principles of all civilization. 

"In the year 1525, I see one hundred thousand 
German peasants fanaticized by your religious 
reforms, and murdered by the partisans of those 
reforms. It was thus, that in its first appearance, 
your religious emancipation made in a few months 
three times as many victims as our Inquisition 
during three hundred years. 

" To this lake of Anabaptist blood let us add. 
first, the blood shed by Germany in the religious 
wars from the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which 
put an end to the frightful butcheries of the Thirty 
Years War; secondly, the blood which won the 
triumph of Lutheranism in Denmark, Sweden, 
Norway and Iceland; thirdly, the blood shed 
by Zwinglianism and Calvinism in Switzerland; 
fourthly, the butcheries in France in her civil reli- 
gious wars from the expedition of Cabrieres and 
Merindol in 1545, so much blamed by Protestant 
historians, which cost the lives of three thousand 
Vaudois, to the exploits of the Camis?"d prophets 
in 1704, in murdering with frightful barbarity four 
thousand Catholics and eighty priests; exploits 



Twenty-Sixth Entertainment. 371 

which they leave in the shade to speak only of 
the dragonades of Louis XIV.; fifthly, the mas- 
sacres of the Low Countries, in which the Duke 
of Alba was as barbarous as the Anabaptists, as 
the followers of the Prince of Orange, of de La 
Marck and Sonoi ; sixthly, and finally, the mas- 
sacres, which during so long a time drenched in 
blood the three kingdoms of Great Britian. 

" In estimating the number of victims carried 
off, whether by those atrocious wars, or by the 
sovereignly intolerant inquisitions which heresy 
established wherever it triumphed, particularly in 
England, where the good virgin Elizabeth alone 
immolated twice as many unfortunate beings as 
did our Inquisition, we find not only that they 
were millions, but tens of millions, and that with- 
out any exaggeration, Spain can say to you : A 
vessel could float on the blood which your inno- 
vators have caused to be shed; while the Inqui- 
sition shed only theirs !"* 

When every man, a little versed in modern 
history, can thus crush the censors of the Inqui- 
sition proper to Spain, an Inquisition whose rigor 
and severity in its first period it is difficult, not 
to say impossible, to excuse, you can understand, 
my friends, that it would not be difficult to justify 
the Catholic Inquisition, the only one for which 
the Church is responsible. 

They speak of millions of victims during the 
thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, par- 
ticularly in the south of France. As for me, I 



* M. de Maistre — Letters on the Spanish Inquisition. 



37 2 The Peoples Ark. 

have read with great attention the history of those 
times, and have applied myself to compute the 
number of the Albigenses and other sectaries, 
whose death put an end to the fire in the south 
of France, and I have found it to reach only some 
hundreds. If any one thinks that this was too 
dear a price to pay for the reestablishment of 
peace and civilization in those countries, I answer: 
Yes, so many capital executions grieve me to 
the heart ; but would you have preferred that 
Mahometanism should have been established in 
the heart of Europe, and have necessitated a second 
crusade, which, instead of costing the lives of four 
or five hundred fire-brands wholly perverse, would 
have killed on the spot and buried beneath a 
mountain of ruins, a hundred thousand unfor- 
tunates, armed, some for the defence of Catholic 
enlightenment, others for the triumph of the most 
abominable errors ? 

If the tribunals of the Holy Office had been an 
inspiration of the ferocious despotism of the popes 
and their thirst for the blood of heretics, as has been 
repeated by so many calumniators, it would have 
been particularly in the Pontifical States that the 
carnage would have been greatest. Now it is 
notorious that of all the Inquisitions, that of Rome 
was incomparably the mildest. From Arnold oc 
Brescia, the Mazzini of the thirteenth century, to 
the atheist Giordana Bruno, burned at Rome in 
1600, I defy any one to cite more than three 
or four factious fanatics who lost their lives in the 
Papal States through the judgment of the Holy 
Office. The Inquisition was then what it was 



Twenty-Sixth Entertainment. 373 

destined to be : A rod raised against the most exe- 
crable executioners of body and soul. 

In fact, my friends, they pity and wish us to 
pity such men as John Huss and Jerome of 
Prague, two monsters of pride, who deluged their 
country with blood for the pleasure of seeing their 
images and their feasts taking the place of those of 
Jesus Christ and the Holy Virgin* and they shed 
not one tear for the three hundred thousand unfor- 
tunates who paid by their blood, in the Hussite 
war, for the sacrilegious folly of those wretches. 
Thousands and thousands of writers have praised, 
and still praise Luther for having triumphed, and 
caused human reason to triumph over papal des- 
potism and the executions of the Inquisition, and 
they say not a word of the hundred thousand 
peasants immolated at one blow, to the infernal 
pride of that apostate monk, destitute of faith and 
morality; they say nothing of those millions and 
millions of men of all ages and conditions, mur- 
dered in a thousand ways, in the midst of a 
Europe in flames — and why? To know which 
was right: the pope, defending the religion of the 
God of Charity, adored by all Christian ages, or 
the dissolute monk, making man an automaton 
under the iron hand of a cruel God, who saves 
or damns us, according to His good pleasure and 
despite our works! 

Do you understand the estimation in which the 
human race, particularly the masses, is held by 

* This fact is given by Pope Martin V. in his Letter to the 
Lords of Bohemia. 
32 



374 The People s Ark. 

those great preachers of religious liberty against 
the barbarous intolerance of Rome, a?id the fearful 
tribunal of the Holy Office f 

MAYOR. 

Yes, sir; one would have to be very blind not 
to recognize here again the truth of what you have 
said elsewhere, that those gentlemen love us as 
the wolf loves the lamb, and that their most 
ardent wish is to free us from the shepherds of the 
Catholic fold, that thus the people may be delivered 
over defenceless to their brutal appetites. The 
Inquisition having been the rod that contributed 
most to counteract the projects of their predeces- 
sors, we must not be surprised that they preserve 
ill-will towards it, and represent it as an implacable 
enemy of enlightenment. Among the facts which 
they cite on this subject, there is one to which they 
attach great value; it is the condemnation and 
imprisonment of the celebrated Galileo, guilty of 
having taught and proved that the earth revolves 
around the sun. If this fact be true, as it seems, 
we must acknowledge that in that circumstance 
the inquisitors of the Holy Office were themselves 
astray. 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

They were not astray, but they found evil mixed 
up with that subject, as we shall see in the follow- 
ing entertainment, where I shall say a word on the 
fact, which is really true, but not in the sense taken 
by the enemies of the Church. 



TWENTY-SEVENTH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Galileo's condemnation — Exploits of peotestant and infidel 
Inquisitors — Reflection. 

E have seen, my friends, that the tribunal of 
the Inquisition was a kind of extraordinary 
police, destined to intimidate and repress the 
obstinate partisans of those errors opposed 
to universal faith. Far from being an obstacle to 
the real progress of enlightenment, that institution 
was, then, rather favorable to it; for there is no 
enlightenment save in truth. In an epoch when 
the Catholic catechism was the only means to 
enlighten and teach morality to minds, to combat 
the ferocity of manners, to draw together and unite 
divers nations and social conditions, to have al- 
lowed ambitious dreamers to oppose teaching to 
teaching, and to establish as many religions and 
churches as they had knaves capable of playing 
the role of prophets, would have been to condemn 
Europe never to come forth from the chaos of 
barbarism. 

But because it was an ecclesiastical tribunal 
established by the popes, it must not be imagined 
that the Inquisition was the organ of the teaching 
of the Church and of the Holy See. The inquisi- 

375 



376 The People s Ark. 

tors never arrogated that office to themselves, and 
no instructed Catholic has ever given to their sen- 
tences the value of a doctrinal decision, emanating 
from a council or a pope. It was a judiciary court, 
called to pronounce on the fact: Are the opinions 
of such an author opposed to Scripture and the 
doctrine of the Church ? In this there were two 
questions — one, a question of right: Is such an 
opinion opposed to Scripture and the doctrine of 
the Church? — the other, a question of fact: Is this 
opinion really that of such an author? 

Now, on these two questions, the inquisitorial 
judges could, like all other judges, be deceived. 
They were really deceived on the question of right, 
in Galileo's affair, adopting, in their sentence, the 
general prejudice which considered the opinion of 
the earth's revolution around the sun as false in 
philosophy, contrary to Scripture, and to common 
teaching. But it is well recognized, that the illus- 
trious Florentine philosopher would not have 
been condemned by the tribunal of the Holy Office 
in 1633, for having sustained the system of Coper- 
nicus, had he been willing to conform to the deci- 
sion of the Holy Office in 1620, which permitted 
that. system to be taught as an hypothesis, but not 
as a thesis. Instead of imposing on himself that 
wise reserve, in a time when the famous discovery 
of the German Canon, although favorably received 
by many popes and cardinals, encountered great 
opposition in the schools ; instead, I say, of using 
that reserve, Galileo had wished to introduce the 
new idea into the domain of theology, by making 
it a thesis demonstrable from Scripture and the 



Twenty-Seventh Entertainment. 377 

Fathers ; this drew on him the first sentence, to 
which he submitted. After some years of respect- 
ful silence, he began to compose Dialogues full of 
wit and malice, in which, under pretence of defend- 
ing the opinion of the inquisitors, he combated it 
in every way, and covered the judges with ridicule. 
Can we be surprised that they became angry ? To 
conclude that the Inquisition, thus provoked, was 
the interpreter of the thoughts of the Church and 
her chiefs, and that the popes and those who sur- 
rounded them, tried to retain Europe in the absurd 
prejudices of ancient philosophy, is to give an inso- 
lent lie to history, which shows us in Pope Urban 
VIII., under whom the condemnation took place, 
an admirer of Galileo,* and in the preceding popes, 
protectors of the new system. 

"Tiraboschi has demonstrated in three interesting 
dissertations, that the sovereign pontiffs, far from 
retarding the knowledge of the true system of the 
world, had, on the contrary, greatly promoted it; 
and that, during two entire centuries, three popes 
and three cardinals had successively sustained, 
encouraged and rewarded Copernicus himself, and 
the more or less successful astronomical precursors 
of that great man, so that it is, in a great measure, 
to the Roman Church we owe the true knowledge 
of the system of the world. They complain of the 
persecution which Galileo suffered for having sus- 
tained the motion of the earth, and they do not 
wish to remember that Copernicus dedicated his 

* u Pope Urban VIII. had composed some verses to cele- 
brate Galileo's astronomical discoveries." Rohrbacker — 
Universal History of the Catholic Church, t. xxv. book 87. 
32* 



378 The Peoples Ark. 

famous book of " Celestial Revolutions" to the 
great Pope Paul III., the enlightened protector of 
all sciences; and that in the same year which 
beheld the condemnation of Galileo, the court of 
Rome omitted no effort to draw to the university 
of Bologna the famous Kepler, who had not only 
embraced Galileo's opinions on the earth's motion, 
but had given immense weight to that opinion by 
the authority of his immortal discoveries, the ever 
famous complement of the demonstration of the 
Copernican system.* .... 

11 Never has the united Church, never have the 
popes, in their quality as heads of the Church, 
pronounced a word against either the system in 
general, or Galileo in particular. Galileo was 
condemned by the Inquisition, that is, by a tribunal 
that could be deceived like others, and which was 
really deceived on the grounds of the question; 
but Galileo himself inflicted injury on the tribunal; 
and he finally owed to his multiplied imprudences 
a mortification which he might have very easily 
averted, without compromising himself in any way. 
There is no doubt about these facts. We have 
the despatches of the Grand Duke's ambassador in 
Rome, who deplores the errors of Galileo. If he 
had abstained from writing, as he had given his 



* It is well to observe that that Kepler, so envied to Ger- 
many by the popes, had much to suffer from his coreligionists, 
particularly the Protestant theologians of Tubingen, and that 
he had great difficulty to preserve from fire his mother, accused 
of sorcery. — See the historical and critical memoirs published 
at Koine by Mgr. Marino Marini, under the title of Galileo e 
Vinquisizione, 



Twenty-Seventh Entertainment* 379 

word to do; if he had not so obstinately wished to 
prove the system of Copernicus from the Holy 
Scripture ; if he had only written in the Latin 
tongue, instead of exciting minds in the vulgar 
tongue, nothing would have happened him."* 

And what were the severities exercised by the 
Inquisition towards the great man? He himself 
recounts them to his friends: 

" I arrived at Rome," says he, " on the 10th of 
February (1633), and was referred to the clemency 
of the Inquisition and the sovereign Pontiff, Urban 
VIIL, who had for me some esteem. I was placed 
under arrest in the delightful palace of Trinite-du- 
Mont, the residence of the Tuscan ambassador 

(his friend) When I arrived at the Holy 

Office, two Jacobins very politely invited me to 
make my apology." His prison was the very 
commodious habitation of the fiscal of the Holy 
Office, which he occupied only fifteen days; after 
which he was permitted to return to the ambassa- 
dor's residence. His sentence was made known 
to him on the 22d of June, and this is what he 
said of it: " To punish me, they forbade me the 
Dialogues , and dismissed me from Rome after five 
months' sojourn. As the pestilence was raging 
in Florence, they assigned me as my dwelling 
the palace of my best friend, Mgr. Piccolimini, 
archbishop of Sienna, where I have enjoyed full 
tranquillity." 

You see, my friends, that the Roman Inquisition, 
even when punishing, knew how to spare its vic- 

* De Maistre. Examination of Bacon's Philosophy, t. ii., 
oh. 7. 



380 The Peoples Ark. 

tims, and that nothing in Galileo's affair breathes 
the persecuting and ferocious fanaticism which 
many of its enemies would make us believe. Let 
us now speak of the enemies of the Church, and 
prove that I said nothing too much, when, in 
the twenty-fifth entertainment, I laid down this 
proposition : — 

"The abuses and severities of the Catholic In- 
quisition for the defence of the religion which had 
enlightened and civilized Europe, are nothing, 
compared to the atrocities committed by the 
legislators and inventors of heresy, schism, and 
infidel philosophy, to establish absurd and immoral 
religions and reconduct us to barbarism." 

Let us commence by a glance at the programme 
and exploits of those great men to whom many 
of our modern writers attribute the intellectual 
and moral emancipation of Europe. 

" Down with the pope, the Roman antichrist! 
Down with the bishops, priests and religious ! 
Away with celibacy and monastic vows ! Away 
with fast, abstinence, confession, mass, devotion 
to the Virgin, and the saints, and prayers for the 
dead. Away with the necessity of good works ! 
Faith in the merits of Christ !" This was what made 
an angel of the most horrible wretch, provided 
that he cried : " Live the Bible, death to the 
papists!" Such was undoubtedly the religious 
programme of Luther, Zwingle and Calvin. 

We find that appeal of the new Gospel res- 
ponded to and applauded in Germany by one half 
of its princes; in Denmark, by Christian II. and 
Frederic I.; in Sweden, by Gustavus Vasa; in 



Twenty-Seventh Entertainment. 381 

Switzerland by the lords of Berne ; in France by 
a part of the princes and courtiers ; in the Low 
Countries by the Prince of Orange, with his 
bandits of land and sea; in England and Ireland, 
by Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth; in 
Scotland, by Knox and all the enemies of the 
unfortunate Mary Stuart. 

And what did those new apostles do? They 
raised armies to reform the cathedrals, parishes, 
and monasteries, that is to say, to pillage, devas- 
tate, burn and violate them even to the tombs; 
to expel, to massacre the bishops, priests and 
monks ; to outrage the religious, to drag them 
to the foot of the altar to be married, to force the 
people at the point of the bayonet to Protestant 
churches, and to places where they burned the 
crosses, missals, statues and relics of the saints. 

We see princes and princesses, enriching both 
themselves, their courtiers and mistresses . with 
the property of the Church and the poor, making 
themselves popes, giving to their beloved subjects 
religions made in their council, and obligatory, 
under pain, first, of fine and imprisonment; then 
of confiscation of goods, banishment, and the 
gallows ; we see them decreeing the penalty of 
high treason* against every priest, religious, or 
papist layman, criminal enough to speak ill of 
the religion established by law. 

This is what we see in the broad light of the 
history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
This is what is demonstrated by a host of monu- 
ments which leave no room for doubt. Establish- 

* To be hanged, drawn and quartered. 



382 The Peoples Ark. 

ing themselves everywhere by violence, the new 
religions aimed at preserving themselves under 
the guardianship of the most violent laws, and 
transformed public functionaries, and even special 
ones into inquisitors, implacable against those who 
had the misfortune to profess the ancient religion. 
To compass their end, the innovators waited not 
until they had the majority in a country; it suf- 
ficed them to have enough of pikes and swords 
with which to enforce obedience. 

The decree is still preserved, by which the Cal- 
vinists of Dauphine, commanded by Crussol, or- 
dained on the 15th of April, 1563, that no one 
should acknowledge any other religion than that 
which had been preached by the ministers for 
about a year, and prayed Crussol and the political 
council to prevent the Mass from being reestab- 
lished there ; and that for the future, no one should 
hold any public office who had not made profes- 
sion of the reformed religion, since that the union 
necessary to the tranquillity of the nation exacted 
unity of belief.* 

" Who is ignorant," says the great Bossuet, " of 
the cruelties exercised by the Queen of Navarre 
against priests and religious ? The towers from 
which the Catholics were cast headlong, and the 
deep pits into which they were flung, are shown 
to this day. The wells of the bishop's palace at 
Nismes, and the cruel instruments employed to 
force them to Protestant sermons are not less 
known to the whole world. 



* Chorier. General History of Dauphine. Book xviii. 
p. 593. 



Twenty- Seventh Entertainment. 383 

"We have still the informations and decrees by 
which it appears that those bloody executions 
were the deliberate resolves of Protestants in coun- 
cil assembled. We have the original orders of 
generals, and those of cities, at the request of con- 
sistories, to compel the Papists to embrace the 
Reformation, by taxes, by quartering soldiers on 
them, by demolishing their houses, and uncover- 
ing the roofs. Those who withdrew to escape 
those violences were stripped of their goods ; the 
records of the town-houses of Nismes, Montauban, 
Alais, Montpellier and other cities of the party are 
full of such decrees."* 

When Protestantism acted thus in states in 
which it formed only one-fifth of the population, 
we may imagine the beautiful toleration exhibited 
by it wherever it was dominant. We can defy any 
one to cite a single country in which the sectarians, 
being in the majority, had given religious freedom 
to the Catholics, except when it had been won by 
them, sword in hand, as by the Catholic cantons 
of Switzerland. 

It, most certainly, does not belong to the Canton 
of Berne to speak to us of toleration, when, as late 
as 1821, it applied to the illustrious Von Haller 
the law decreeing the loss of political and civil 
rights to the Bernese converted to Catholicism. 
Neither does it belong to the republic of Geneva, 
which, even after it had mitigated the Draconian 
and inquisitorial legislation of Calvin, would not, 
before the French occupation, permit any act of 
Catholic worship, whether public or private. 

* History of the Variations, Book x., c. 52. 



384 The Peoples Ark, 

We will not cite the reformed states of Germany, 
which all, even in 1806, excluded the Catholics 
from offices, corporations and communities, and in 
Saxony, even from the right of possessing landed 
property. We will not cite Denmark or Sweden, 
whose death-law against Catholics I have pre- 
viously mentioned. Neither will we cite Holland, 
whose States-General, four years after the act of 
eternal confederation, guaranteeing entire liberty to 
Catholics, declared that the Catholic religion should 
not be allowed in any place subject to their au- 
thority. And that edict of 1583 was followed up 
to the end of the seventeenth century by twenty 
other edicts marked with the stamp of the most 
cruel intolerance. 

What shall we say of England's penal laws 
against the Catholics of the three kingdoms, exe- 
cuted during nearly three centuries with atrocious 
perseverance and barbarity? At a time in which 
religious fury had been everywhere diminished, 
William III., not content with violating the treaty 
of Limerick (1691), added to the horrible measures 
already taken to decatholicize Ireland, his code, 
which the celebrated Protestant Burke called u An 
engine of rare address and finished labor, as fit for 
the oppression, impoverishment and degradation 
of a people and the debasement of human nature 
itself, as all that had been, up to then, produced 
by the perverse genius of man." 

On the abominable exploits of the English In- 
quisition, let us leave Catholic writers aside, and 
hold to the account of the Protestant Cobbett, in 
his " Letters on the Reformation, " and those of 



Twenty-Seventh Entertainment. 385 

the Protestant historians cited by Daniel O'Connell, 
in his famous " Memorial to the Queen of England," 
and we shall feel the truth of those words of the 
immortal Agitator: "I conjure the English and 
Protestants to read these extracts from Protestant 
historians, and to reflect how much disgrace they 
cast on Protestantism in general, and on the Eng- 
lish nation in particular. Ah ! if they had such 
facts to urge against Catholics, we should never 
hear the end of it."* 

I have spoken only of the cruelties of the Pro- 
testant inquisitions against Catholics, whose sole 
crime was that of preferring the religion of the 
Christian universe to the miserable inventions of 
a few wretches ; and of these I have said only a 
word. What shall I say of that beautiful toleration 
which the Protestant sects exercise towards one 
another? 

Reformed Germany was not the only one to 
decree the massacre of the Anabaptists, the eldest 
children of the Reformation ; she was imitated 
everywhere; and as those sectaries inundated 
every country in which resounded the cry: Down 
with popery ! Live the Bible ! — they burned, decapi- 
tated, and drownedf more Anabaptists than the 
Spanish Inquisition ever destroyed relapsed Jews 
and Mahometans. 

* Memorial, p. 258. 

f The Swiss reformers preferred drowning to other deaths, 
in virtue of the frightful jest of the reformer Zwingle, who, 
playing on the word Anabaptists, as rebaptizing, wrote : 
u Let those who rebaptize be baptized until death result 
from it." — Hoeninghaus : The Reformation against the Refor- 
mation, t. i., p. 345. 
33 



386 The Peoples Ark. 

We know the extreme intolerance of Henry 
VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, against the dis- 
senters; of Calvin against those who dared to 
doubt his frightful doctrines on predestination to 
evil and to hell, the inamissibility of grace, etc., 
etc. 

We know of the terrible war waged by his 
children in Holland, under the name of Gomarists 
and Arminians, in the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century; a war which ended in 1617 by 
the death of the celebrated Barneveldt, the per- 
petual imprisonment of Hogerberts and the illus- 
trious Grotius, and by the banishment of more 
than one hundred ministers. 

Let us not forget the long and bloody pursuit 
which Protestantism made everywhere during the 
first two centuries of its existence, against socerers 
and witches, a class from which Catholicity had 
nearly delivered Europe, but which increased very 
fast in those countries in which the reform gave 
credit to the teachings of Luther and Calvin 
regarding Satan's omnipotence, and his long do- 
minion over the Christian universe. 

While the consistories and universities were 
fighting to know what Jesus Christ had come to 
say to the world, and making His religion a pro- 
blem to be solved by the Bible, the people, who 
read little and wish to be taught, addressed them- 
selves naturally to sorcerers and diviners. Now, 
in his inquisitoral code, Calvin had judged sorcery 
deserving of fire, as the crime of treason in the highest 
degi'ee against the Divinity. That decision became 
a rule. In the Protestant Rome, they burned, 



Twenty-Seventh Entertainment. 387 

within sixty years, one hundred and fifty persons 
for the crime of magic, and the Protestant Fazy 
observes with reason, that under the long reign 
of the bishops of Geneva, " we find no trace ot 
those monstrous proceedings against opinions, or 
those horrible torments inflicted on the unfortu- 
nate beings suspected of being in communication 
with the demon."* 

Nevertheless, the Genevese autos-da-fe for the 
crime of sorcery, are nothing compared to those 
beyond the Rhine. " Nearly all the German pro- 
vinces furnish documents according to which, dur- 
ing all the seventeenth century, multitudes of men 
and women were burnt for sorcery, frequently at 
such short intervals, that we can count many 
hundreds in a year."f While the most celebrated 
reformed theologians and jurists kept silence, or 
wrote in favor of those proceedings, as iniquitous 
in the form as inhuman in the spirit, the Catholic 
priests courageously raised their voice, as the Pro- 
testant historian Menzel acknowledges. Among 
them were particularly distinguished two young 
Jesuits, Tanner and Spee, the first of whom by 
his demands excited a storm, which was not with- 
out danger in an age when the most celebrated 
jurisconsult of Germany, the Protestant Benedict 
Carpzouro, held that they ought to proceed, not 
only against the sorcerers, but against those who 
denied the reality of compacts with the devil. 
As to F. Spee, it was undoubtedly to his learned 

* Essai (Tun precis de Vhistoire de Geneve, t. i., p. 185. 
f M. Rohrbacher. — Universal History of the Catholic 
Church, t. xxv., liv. 87. 



388 The Peoples Ark. 

work,* published in 163 1, that Germany owed first, 
the mitigation, and afterwards the abolition of her 
absurd legislation in regard to magic. The great 
Leibnitz has also believed it a duty to discharge 
the debt of his contemporaries and coreligionists 
towards the Jesuit, by calling him "an excellent 
man whose memory should be precious to the 
wise and the learned."! 

To this passing glimpse of Protestant toleration, 
let us add, my friends, a small sample of that 
of infidel philosophy. The learned Bergier, who 
died in 1790, terminated an article on the Inquisi- 
tion by these words: "We boldly assert that if 
infidel philosophers were masters, they would 
establish an Inquisition as rigorous as that of 
Spain, against all those who should preserve an 
attachment for religion.";); "What a furious calum- 
niator !" then exclaimed thousands of Voltarians, 
great preachers of toleration. 

Well, the grave of Bergier was yet fresh, when 
the infidel philosophers , become masters \ had already 
immolated to their antichristian and antimo- 
narchical fanaticism, nearly two millions of French 
people of every condition, age and sex, in the 
midst of scenes of unexampled barbarity. La 
Vendee alone had furnished nine hundred thou- 
sand victims. 

" For the execution of the law of the suspected 
of the 2 1st of September 1793, more than fifty 
thousand revolutionary committees were installed 

* Cautio criminalis sen de processibus contra sagas. 

t Essai de theodue , Ire. part. 

% See his Theological Dictionary, art., Inquisition. 



Twenty-Seventh Entertainment 389 

on the soil of France. According to Cambon's 
accounts, they annually cost five hundred and 
ninety-one millions (assignat). Every member of 
those committees received three francs a day, and 
they numbered five hundred and forty thousand: 
there were then five hundred and forty thousand 
accusers having the right to devote to death. In 
Paris alone, there were sixty revolutionary com- 
mittees, each having its prison for the detention 
of the suspected."* 

And, as the same historian observes, " It was not 
only priests and religious who figured on the 
mortuary register prepared by those five hundred 
and forty thousand inquisitors; there were thou- 
sands of women and children guillotined, drowned, 
shot. . . . The Reign of Terror alone has given to 
the world the cowardly and pitiless spectacle of 
the juridical assassination of crowds of women and 
children." 

Among so many grand inquisitors whom the 
revolutionary government sent into the depart- 
ments, to purify them from all the enlightened and 
virtuous suspected of incivism, there were very 
few who, in a single circuit, did not surpass all the 
horrors charged to the memory of the Spanish 
inquisitor, Torquemada. The correspondence and 
official relations of those monsters, inserted in 
the Moniteur, would alone suffice to demonstrate 
that philosophical fanaticism has left far behind it 
all the fanaticisms of which history has preserved 
the remembrance. 

* Chateaubriand. Historical Studies — Preface. 

00* 



390 The Peoples Ark. 

The horrible crusade, directed at first against 
religious knowledge, was soon extended to scien- 
tific knowledge. Let us compare the fate of Galileo, 
condemned by the Roman Inquisition to pass some 
months in a delightful palace, with that of so many- 
illustrious literary and scientific men stowed away 
in dungeons, whence they came forth only to 
mount the scaffold. The celebrated chemist, La- 
voisier, asked a respite of fifteen days to complete 
some experiments of great interest. He was 
answered : " The Republic has no need of learned 
men !" 

With the men of science, the disciples of deified 
reason destroyed scientific monuments. It was 
the very philosophical Condorcet, himself a savant, 
who made that barbarous motion in the tribune 
of the National Assembly, on the 19th of June, 
1792, and we know with what success.* 

Gorged with carnage, rapine, and destruction, 
without being satiated, the inquisitors of philosophy 
decreed the violations of the tombs, and threw 
themselves, like veritable jackals, on the remains 
of fifty royal generations. 

Let us pass in silence over some other philoso- 
phical conceptions of that epoch, such as the 
motion to open slaughter-houses for human flesh, 
which failed; such as the working in human skins \ 
which obtained some success in Mendon's tannery, 
and procured to fashionable sans-culottism the 
satisfaction of being able to appear at the feasts of 
liberty in garments made of the skins of aristocrats. 

* Chateaubriand. Historical Studies — Preface. 



Twenty-Seventh Entertainment. 391 

In reading the feats of the inquisitors of '93, one 
would think that they had exhausted all the 
excesses of barbarous fanaticism contained in the 
motto of the Voltarian school : Crush the infamous! 
Take the bowels of the last of the priests to strangle 
the last of the kings! Nevertheless, the prophets 
of socialism tell us, that the tigers of that period 
sinned by excess of moderation, and that the reign 
of social democracy shall not be so tender. We 
may believe them. 

Atheistic socialism being the final word of all 
religious, social, and philosophical errors, its ulti- 
mate result will be the extermination of our 
species. 

Enough, my friends, on this sad subject. I end 
by this reflection : — If the Catholic Church, to 
defend the only religion which remains here below, 
had employed the one-thousandth part of the 
atrocities committed, and caused to be committed 
by schisms, heresies, and infidel philosophy, for the 
establishment of religions equivalent to and ending 
in atheism and the most frightful anarchy, no 
Catholic would dare to speak of toleration or 
religious liberty. 

I beg Mr. Teacher to refer to our next entertain- 
ment the objections that may still remain. 




TWENTY-EIGHTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

answer to the last objections against the church and 
the Priesthood. 

TEACHER. 

CHARGED to make known to you, sir, the 
objections and prejudices that should exist 
in the minds of your audience against the 
** Catholic creed, I have acquired the happy 
conviction that my task, which would have been 
very great some days ago, has now become very 
light. The point of view, at the same time vast, 
profound, simple, and luminous, under which you 
have shown us the Catholic religion, has truly 
interested minds, and caused a great commotion. 
Those who still doubt, know, at least, that their 
doubts are the result of ignorance. The resolu- 
tion to learn, and to be more assiduous, more 
attentive to their pastors words, shall be the first 
fruit of your entertainments, and the dissipation 
of their doubts the natural result of their progress 
in religious instruction. By laying aside a host 
of objections, the detail of which would be tire- 
some, and which the torch of instruction shall 
speedily dissipate, the mass of objections is re- 
duced to three points : severity of Catholic dogma 
and morality; inferiority, in many respects, of 

392 



Twenty- Eigh th En tertainment. 393 

Catholic populations; and relaxation and scandals 
among the clergy. 

First, the reproach of severity in dogma, falls, 
almost exclusively, on the eternity of punishment. 
What you have said of this towards the end of 
the Reveil da Peuple y has already greatly dimin- 
ished that prejudice. One is delivered from the 
revolting idea of a God, Himself torturing His 
creatures eternally to avenge His justice; but 
some have still a difficulty in reconciling with 
the divine goodness, the idea of poor creatures 
being the eternal victims of their passing folly. 
As to morality, you are not ignorant, sir, that in 
the Ten Commandments of God, the sixth is too 
much. They know well enough that on this mat- 
ter there are excesses to be avoided, especially 
adultery, but many think that the prohibition is 
carried too far, and they say: "If this be so, who 
shall be saved ?" They are told : " Have recourse 
to the remedies ; mortify yourselves, confess, com- 
municate !" But the remedies frighten them more 
than the evil. 

How many objections arise against confession! 
Those objections, it is true, do not give us much 
concern ; a hundred times have we seen them 
victoriously overthrown by our pastors, but their 
foundation still remains, it is an extreme repug- 
nance. We must no longer speak of mortification, 
fast, and abstinence; they are not of our age. The 
Church, it is true, continues to command these 
things, but the transgression of the Command- 
ments of the Church has become so general, that 
for many it seems an acquired right. 



394 The Peoples Ark. 

Secondly, the Protestant and Catholic self-wor- 
shippers have so greatly vaunted the happy fruits 
cf the religious revolutions of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and the immense progress that we owe to 
them in science, philosophy, politics, commerce, 
industry, and the culture of all the arts, that many 
able minds imagine that our populations are 
inferior to Protestant populations in regard to 
material well-being, and even in intellectual and 
moral culture. We observe this particularly in 
those who travel, a class extremely apt to view 
everything favorably, because they see nothing to 
the bottom. You, sir, have already lifted a portion 
of the veil that hides the wounds of those Protes- 
tant states the most boasted and the most boast- 
ing. It is to be desired that you would complete 
this work, and confound the indefatigable calum- 
niators of Catholicity, by saying to them : You 
who take pleasure in making the most of the 
stains and vermin on our robe, come forth from 
the filth that rises even to your w r aist, and cast 
away the reptiles that tear your sides ! 

Thirdly and finally, the people are too much 
accustomed to judge of religion by the conduct 
of those who preach it, and to judge of the con- 
duct of the priesthood by the mediocre knowledge 
and virtues of a certain number of priests, and by 
the scandals of others. 

Among a clergy of forty thousand individuals, 
to whose devotion a country owes all that remains 
to it of faith and Christian virtues, that is to say, 
of civilized life, there may be one or two thousand 
relaxed priests, who render themselves contemp- 



Twenty-Eighth Entertainment. 395 

tible by their idleness, their luxury, and their 
worldly activity; but we forget the former to 
occupy ourselves with the latter. Some of those 
priests without virtue, instead of arresting the 
progress of vice, fall themselves into crime, and 
become demons like Judas; then our enemies 
cry out: Behold the priests! And that judgment 
continues, till it impresses even those who under- 
stand the sovereign injustice of it. 

Such, sir, are the last sighs of incredulity expir- 
ing among your auditors. By giving to the mon- 
ster the final stroke, you will render an immense 
service to those minds over which it still tyran- 
nizes, for who is the unbeliever, knowing a little 
of religion, who has not said a thousand times 
in his heart : How happy should I be if I could 
believe and practise ! 

PLATO PUNCHINELLO. 

Nothing is more real, sir, than the fact of which 
you speak. Every unbeliever has, more or less, 
the consciousness of this truth : Incredulity is an 
evil, faith a benefit. We have on this subject the 
public avowals of the most famous coryphoes of 
irreligion. 

That consciousness, it is true, does not suffice 
for belief, but it is an invitation from on high to 
take the road to faith, — reflection, study and prayer. 
If one resists that divine summons, he is guilty, 
and finds himself condemned "by the judgment 
of his own conscience/' as St. Paul says.* 

In incredulity, as in other vices, there are two 

* Epist. to Titus, c. iii. 11. 



396 The People s Ark. 

kinds of guilty persons, the passive unbeliever or 
the simply incredulous man, and the active unbe- 
liever or preacher of incredulity. 

The first, limiting himself to not believing, or 
rather, to not practising, does not regard with an 
evil eye those who believe and practise. He holds 
himself on the defensive, shows his incredulity 
only when attacked. He is an indifferent person, 
whose disease is less in the wanderings of the 
mind, than in the weakness of the heart, and the 
phantoms of the imagination. That soul can be 
very easily led back, if, instead of irritating it by 
too urgent solicitations and discussions, we exer- 
cise patience, and apply ourselves to gently dissi- 
pate his prejudices and repugnances by an exposi- 
tion of what is most attractive in religion. 

The preacher of irreligion is corrigible, inasmuch 
as he preaches only through foolishness and 
vanity; but the great master of irreligion soon 
puts into his heart this satanical sentiment: Faith, 
with its promises and menaces, its virtues and its 
benefits, makes me too uneasy not to labor for 
its extermination! — Must we despair of this man? 
No; but this is what I say: Every soul drawn 
by him from the life of faith, is as the blow of a 
poignard on the heart of Him who died for the 
redemption of every soul; the number of those 
blows being measured, the Saviour of souls says: 
"Enough!" Satan immediately falls on the slayer, 
and millions and millions of angels and archangels 
would not be able to drag from him his eternal 
and truly legitimate prey. 

Referring to our final entertainment what I have 



Twenty- Eighth Entertainment. 397 

to say of the unhappy eternity, I come to the 
second point of the first objection, viz: the severity 
of Catholic morality. 

Do you not perceive, my friends, that the objec- 
tion turns against him who makes it, with all the 
force of a demonstration. Catholic morality com- 
mands all virtues, spares no vice ; what is the 
consequence ? That it is God who has invented 
it, for we have seen that the religions of human 
fabrication have been only cowardly compromises 
with evil passions, save when they have been the 
complete adoration of them, as in paganism. 

The general rule is, that a thing is valued only 
in proportion to what it costs. 

What would be that religion which should 
demand of you no sacrifice for your instruction or 
moral conduct? It would be a religion that would 
abandon you to all the wanderings of your igno- 
rance and that of others, to the absolute despotism 
of your own vices and those of the men in whose 
midst you live. Is this what you would wish? 
Would you envy the fate of the slaves of pagan- 
ism, fallen as low as we have seen, only for want 
of Christian knowledge and virtue ? 

It is but too evident that we are born with a 
nature much diseased, which can be healed only 
by vigorous treatment. We are born in perfect 
ignorance of our destiny; seek for another means 
of dissipating that ignorance than that of religious 
instruction ; you shall not find it. Where religion 
does not teach that first truth, there are found only 
darkness, complete uncertainty, and superstitious 
folly. We are born with the germ of all vices, and 
34 



398 The Peoples Am. 

you know, my friends, that by allowing that fatal 
germ to develop itself without restraint, you would 
make your children only unhappy wretches, who 
would be their own executioners, the ruin of their 
family and of society. How can this be prevented? 
By no other means than that which religion points 
out to you : — Raise your children in the fear of the 
Lord and the love of His law. 

They complain of the excessive severity of the 
sixth commandment, interdicting, under pain of 
spiritual death, even the voluntary thought of evil. 
But a very simple consideration is sufficient to 
make you see that that complaint is destitute of 
even common sense. Is it not true, that by tolera- 
ting the thought, the desire comes ; that when 
this enters, and is entertained, the act is almost 
inevitable? that the act in being multiplied, forms 
a habit which tends to become a necessity? that 
that degrading habit makes of a soul created to 
the image of God, an, I know not what, exclu- 
sively applied to destroy, far and wide, both souls 
and bodies, for the pleasure of ruining and corrupt- 
ing his own body ? This being so, could God 
dispense Himself from saying to His ministers : 
Warn well the souls confided to you, that in refus- 
ing to combat evil thoughts and desires, they bid 
me an eternal adieu ?* 

Impurity ! — is it not the evil among all the evils 
of humanity? Was it not the creator of the 
Deluge, the exterminator of infamous cities, the 
generator of all the abominations of paganism, 

* Wisdom i. 3. 



Twenty-Eighth Entertainment. 399 

of all the degrading and sanguinary inventions 
of Asiatic, Mussulman, and African despotism? 
Impurity ! — has it not been, in common with pride, 
the inspirer of all religious, philosophical, and 
social errors, tending to that abominable device: 
Down with all the opposers of division, or of a 
community of goods and women! 

Would the Catholic Church be really the Church 
founded by the Saviour of the world, if she did 
not possess the remedy to the most terrible of our 
maladies ? And this remedy, as Mr. Teacher has 
very truly said, is the purification of the soul by 
repentance and confession, it is the regeneration 
of the soul and body by the Divine Communion, 
it is the preponderance of the moral life over the 
organic life, obtained by- the observance of the 
laws of Christian mortification. 

Confession, frightful thing ! Yes, my friends, as 
frightful as ghosts are to those who have never 
seen them closely. Do you wish to overcome that 
terror, somewhat ridiculous ? Look at the infinite 
number of those who confess, yet do not die. Do 
as you would to the ghost; go straight to the 
phantom, and you shall be not only cured of your 
fear, but shall feel that confession is to the soul 
having the greatest repugnance to it, a source of 
the most ineffable consolations. This is the ac- 
knowledgment confirmed by millions of guilty 
souls. I will cite only two of them, chosen, one 
from the summit, the other from the lowest step 
of the social ladder. 

Napoleon, after having opened his conscience to 
the minister of reconciliation, said, a few days 



400 The People s Ark. 

before his death to General de Montholon: " Gen- 
eral, I am happy, I have fulfilled my duties; I 
desire for you, at your death, the same happiness. 
I had need of it, you see. I am an Italian, a child 
of Corsica. The sound of the bells moves me, the 
sight of a priest gives me pleasure. I wished to 
make a secret of all this, but it would not be right; 
I owe, and I wish to render glory to God."* 

Listen now to what was written some years ago 
(April 8th, 1850) by the parricide Godart, con- 
demned by the judges of this world, but converted 
and absolved by the minister of "heaven. 

"Still under the influence of a duty the most 
sacred that a Christian can fulfil, a duty which I 
had for so long a time neglected, and the omission 
of which has been fatal to me, I hasten to answer 
your letter which has done me so much good. 

" No one can know from what a weight one is 
freed when he has opened his heart to the minister 
of God; no one can understand with what good- 
ness he penetrates by his paternal words into the 
hearts of the most guilty. After God, where is 
the friend more sincere, more devoted than the 
priest? Unfortunately, the advice of that friend so 
sincere, so devoted, is not heard; or if we hear it, it 
is but to reject it, and follow the torrent of those 
passions that conduct us to the brink of the preci- 
pice, down which, miserably blinded as we are, we 
fall" 

Yes, my friends, confession is frightful only to 
those cowards who view it from a distance. It is 

* Universal Biography. By M. Michaud. Art. Napoleon. 



Twenty- Eighth Entertainment. 401 

the same with works of Christian mortification, 
particularly those prescribed by the commandments 
of the Church. I have many times proved the 
following proposition : The art, by excellence, of 
suffering less here below both in soul and body, 
and of living better and longer, is the exact obser- 
vance of the laws of God and of the Church. I 
even propose to myself to give you the demonstra- 
tion of it, some day. 

As to those who should tell you that the laws 
of the Church touching fast and abstinence are no 
longer in season in the nineteenth century, look on 
them as perfectly ignorant of the Christian spirit 
and our social maladies. The first and the last 
word of the Gospel is to repress the desires of the 
flesh, it is to establish the reign of God in the soul, 
and the reign of the soul over the senses. What 
is the great malady of the age, that which threatens 
to precipitate us, from one instant to the other, into 
the final convulsions of death ? It is sensualism, 
the adoration of pleasures and whatever procures 
them. The Church has, then, more than ever, a 
right to say to nations and individuals: "If you do 
not do penance, you shall all perish."* And when 
the Church speaks to and commands us, you 
ought now to know who speaks and commands; 
it is He who says: "He that will not hear the 
Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the 

publican All that you bind on earth shall 

be bound in heaven. . . . He that despises you 
despises me," 



* St. Luke, c. xiii. 5. 
34* 



402 The People s Ark. 

To say, as so many ignorant persons do, that 
one is obliged to keep the commandments of God 
under pain of reprobation, but not those of the 
Church, is to show one's self not only a bad Catholic, 
but a real Protestant. The ignorance, more or 
less involuntary, in which the heretic remains with 
regard to the Church, may serve to excuse him 
before God ; but what can be alleged in favor of 
him, who, born in the bosom of light, has lived in 
the contempt of light? The number of the trans- 
gressors of ecclesiastical laws, were it ten times as 
great as it is, could not prevail over that maxim as 
ancient as Catholicism : " One has God for his 
Father only by accepting the Church as his Mother." 
On this point, as on others, the Catholic yoke 
weighs heavily on those who reject it or drag it; 
it gives wings to those who carry it resolutely. 

In fine, let us not lose sight of the capital truth 
of the Christian. Why are we here below for 
some days ? For trial, for sacrifice, for combat, 
for the acquisition of that kingdom before which 
all the kingdoms of the earth are as nothing. The 
heaven which Jesus Christ promises to our obe- 
dience to His precepts; heaven, that eternal 
ocean of all that can win our heart, — glory, gran- 
deur, power, delights, — is it then so trifling a 
thing, that we should complain of the price which 
God puts on it? On this subject, there recurs to 
my memory a little anecdote. 

In his famous Northern campaign, during the 
winter of 1806 and 1807, Napoleon confided to the 
Marshal and Senator Lefebvre, the command of 
the siege of Dantzic, a place extremely strong. 



Twenty-Eighth Entertainment. 403 

Such a task suited not the taste of an old cavalry 
general, as ignorant as he was brave. He com- 
plained bitterly to the emperor, who replied : " But, 
my old general, why do you complain of what 
will cover you with glory? I have taken every 
measure to compel Dantzic to open to you its 
gates. It is really necessary that yon also, when we 
return to France, may have something to say in the 
Senate Chamber!'* 

Well, would not you, my friends, wish to have 
some victories to recount in the eternal Senate 
of heaven ? Can you flatter yourselves to arrive 
without effort at the sojourn of heroes; first, those 
angels who have entered there only after hav. j 
valiantly combated the defection of a great num- 
ber of their companions drawn into revolt by one 
of their chiefs; then those men who have been 
crowned only inasmuch as they had resisted the 
seductions of Satan, the world and the flesh? 

Jesus Christ tells you that such a thing is impos- 
sible : He who suffered so much to facilitate our 
entrance into heaven, expressly tells us that it 
shall be given only to those zvlw do themselves vio- 
lence, that the gate is narrow, that the road that 
leads to it is not very commodious, \ and that by 
wishing to escape from pain, they inevitably end 
— where ? At the eternal gehenna, the sad abode 
of the base and cowardly, who, in refusing the 
combat, passed, by that act, under the flag of the 
enemy of all virtue, of all good. 

* History of the Consulate and the Empire. By M. Theirs : 
Book xxvii. 

t St. Matthew, e. viii. 13.— xi. 12. 



404 The Peoples Ark. 

The second objection indicated by Mr. Teacher, 
which is founded on a pretended moral and mate- 
rial superiority of those populations separated 
from the Catholic Church, still enjoys great credit 
among that class so numerous, of superficial readers 
and observers ; I have resolved to overthrow it 
to the foundation by a comparative picture of 
Catholic nations and separated nations; but this 
picture, in order to forever confound those idle 
talkers, would require at least a small volume. 
This volume you shall have, my friends, in a few 
months, unless that between now and then, the 
separated nations, aided by our liberal revolu- 
tionists, give us the last fruit of their three cen- 
turies' progress : the triumph, at least momentary, 
of the most savage barbarism. 

I pass to the third objection. Referring to the 
book which I have promised, the discussion of a 
certain number of facts relating to the clergy, I 
here limit myself to some considerations which 
result from what I have had the honor of saying 
to you of the Catholic priesthood, in the Reveil 
du Peuple, and in the preceding entertainments.* 

The priesthood having been by Jesus set over 
the great work of human regeneration, we must 
not be surprised to find in this chosen corps, and 
in a superior degree, the three elements which 
agitate the Christian world — the divine, the human, 
and the infernal. 

First: the divine element visibly predominates in 

* See Reveil du Peuple, Lessons x., xi. — Entertainments, 



Twenty-Eighth Entertainment. 405 

the history of the priesthood, and is clearly mani- 
fested in the durability of that body, and the gene- 
ral results of its action. 

Show me then a corporation composed of five 
or six hundred thousand individuals of every condi- 
tion, of every country ; a corporation unceasingly 
combating both within and without, all ideas, actions 
and customs opposed to Catholic faith and morals ; 
a corporation incessantly fought against, both within 
and without, by all the vicious inspirations of the 
human mind and heart; a corporation always 
strong enough to resist, during eighteen centuries, 
the most furious exterior attacks, the most cruel 
interior lacerations, yet still to retain in unity, by 
the sole power of conviction, nearly two hundred 
millions of subjects. No government could have 
been more impossible to establish, none more 
impossible to maintain, in a human point of view, 
than the government of the Catholic Church. 
Nevertheless, seek for a civil government wise 
enough, strong enough to have reigned over only 
one nation the one-fourth the duration of the 
sacerdotal reign over the extent of the Christian 
universe. 

Yes, my friends, it would be necessary to be ten 
times more blind, not to recognize the work of the 
Most High in the duration of the priesthood. 
Therefore, when the enemies of the Church say 
to you : Catholicism is the work of the priests' 
ambition and the people's imbecility, — give them 
only this answer : If this be so, why have not 
you yet overthrown Catholicism, you who are so 
superior to it, by your chiefs' lust of power, by 



406 The Peoples Ark. 

the incurable imbecility of your dupes, and by 
the more or less eager concurrence of anticatholic 
rulers ? 

Are not the general results of sacerdotal action 
still the proof of the divine element? In my pre- 
ceding lessons, and in the course of these enter- 
tainments, I think I have rendered palpable the 
fact, that all that remains to us of faith and charity, 
that is to say, of Christian civilization, is due to the 
action of the priesthood, and that wherever this 
action ceases, or at least diminishes, there we see 
the resuscitation of barbarism, but a barbarism 
with those characteristics of subversive fury which 
it finds among nations guilty of apostasy. We 
always see our clergy brave injuries, sufferings and 
death, to preserve, extend, and propagate the 
work of Jesus Christ, whether at home or abroad. 
Show me among the clergies created by schism 
and heresy, only one among those hosts of volun- 
tary martyrs of apostolic charity, which we have 
always been accustomed to send to the most fero- 
cious oppressors of Asia and Oceanica, to the most 
deadly climates of Africa. When our enemies ask 
you what the priests do, tell them: They do just 
the contrary from you. They go to establish in 
the midst of barbarians that civilization which you 
have stifled among us. You, to make yourselves 
great, and enjoy yourselves at our expense, labor 
to change Christian nations into herds of swine 
and tigers ; and they, to accomplish the words of 
Jesus Christ, go to sacrifice themselves and to die, 
in order to transform herds of swine and tigers 
into Christian nations. The priests are, with some 



Twenty-Eighth Entertainment 407 

exceptions, men of the God of Charity, as you are 
men of Satan. 

Secondly: as it has pleased the Man-God to 
compose His priesthood of men, the human ele- 
ment must necessarily play in it a great part, and 
agree tolerably well with the divine. Compared 
with Jesus Christ, whose lieutenant he is, the best, 
the holiest of priests will make but a paltry figure, 
and must say to himself: I am a miserable priest, 
unworthy of my divine profession! — All the heroes 
of the priesthood have said this, and more than 
this; and had they not said so with the most 
perfect conviction, they should not have been 
heroes. The priesthood is visibly sustained by the 
arm of its Divine Chief, but its members have been, 
are, and shall eternally be, overwhelmed by the 
comparison that is made, and should of right be 
made, between the disciples and the Master, be- 
tween the ambassadors oi heaven and the eternal 
King of heaven and earth. This comparison, so 
humiliating for the priesthood, is the cuirass w r hich 
Jesus Christ has given it to resist the most common 
and the most terrible of the priest's temptations, 
that of pride. 

Therefore, my friends, there is nothing more 
true than this sentence: The priests are not what 
they ought to be. But I think that you should not 
complain, when you can say: Our priests are, in 
general, all that could be expected from the grace 
of God and the miseries of our nature. — And when 
can you say this ? When you find in the sacer- 
dotal militia, first, a very great number of generals, 
captains, lieutenants, sub-officers and soldiers, all 



4oS The Peoples Ark. 

excellent, some with heroic heart, others with 
more than ordinary capacity and devotedness: 
secondly, a mass of under-officers and soldiers 
generally brave but with less ardor, — I mean a 
number of priests endowed with sufficient know- 
ledge and virtue to fulfil their duties regularly, and 
give no reason for grave reproach by their conduct. 
Let their commanders reproach them for the cow- 
ardliness and lukewarmness of their ministry; let 
their own conscience, when they enkindle it by the 
fire of the charity of Jesus Christ, accuse them of 
the evil which they allow to be done, and of the 
good that they do not do; this is all very well. But 
whoever will keep an account of the i^ood which 
even those tepid priests preserve by their action, 
and the evil they prevent, v/ill find that they are 
still worthy of the beautiful title of men of God and 
of. humanity: 

When the great majority of your sacerdotal 
army belong to these two classes, bless God, my 
friends, and do not be too much scandalized at 
seeing on the flanks, in the rear, and even in the 
ranks of that militia, a certain number of loun- 
gers, stragglers, marauders— in fine, of traitors and 
Judases, who constitute the infernal element. 

Thirdly: in Lesson x. of the Rcveil du Pcuplc, 
I have shown you how the combat between good 
and evil, which is the end of our passage here 
below, must be found again among the priesthood. 
Satan finds his way even there. He entered into 
the terrestrial paradise; — would you then expect 
that he could not enter into the sanctuary? He 
thrice tempted the Divine Chief of the priesthood ; 



Twenty-Eighth Entertainment. 409 

could you, then, think that he would respect His 
disciples ? Rest assured, my friends, that for one 
demon who tempts you, the priest has a hundred 
pursuing him. Why? Because, as his Master has 
said : The pastor once fallen, the flock shall be 
dispersed.* Again, He said to the apostles, ad- 
dressing Himself to their chief: " Simon, Simon, 
Satan has demanded thee, that he may sift thee as 
wheat."f And in truth, we see that at the first 
shake of the sieve, Simon Peter fell, and of his 
eleven colleagues, nine fled away, and the tenth 
marched at the head of the deicides. 

If you ask, my friends, how it is that the bad 
priest so easily becomes a demon, the Gospel 
again explains it to you. In speaking of the com- 
munion of Judas, it tells us that Satan immediately 
entered into himX incorporated himself with him 
and became his master, as your soul is the mis- 
tress of the body. Ah, yes, that sacred beverage 
of the altar, which enkindles and increases in the 
fervent priest the inextinguishable thirst of good, 
and which preserves the mediocre priest from 
descending so low as to drink of the empoisoned 
waters of vice; that beverage, I say, enkindles 
in the unhappy wretch who profanes it, with the 
knowledge of what, he does, the satanic thirst for 
evil. I shall only repeat what the priesthood has 
continually said with sorrow, and what is demon- 
strated by history, when I say : The pest of public 
pests is the bad priest. It is he, principally, who 



* St. Mark, c. xiv. 27. f St. Luke, c. xxii. 32. 

\ St. John, c. xiii. 27. 
35 



41 o The Peoples Ark. 

has kindled and carried through the Christian 
world the torch of schism and heresy, devouring 
at the same time both faith and morals, souls and 
bodies. The bad priest is the poisoner of poi- 
soners, the murderer of murderers. 

But do not forget, my friends, what I have said 
to you : Bad priests are a great proof of the 
divinity of Catholicism and its priesthood. Both 
one and the other would have been a hundred 
times demolished, had not both one and the other 
been the work, by excellence, of the incarnation of 
the God of Charity. 

Those who demand why the Church does not 
apply herself more energetically to reduce the 
number of bad priests, do not then know the super- 
human efforts of the Church to have in her ranks 
none but good priests, and the incessant efforts of 
the powers of the world to give her none but the 
mediocre, or the bad. The Church has always 
demanded three things for a good clergyman — 
vocation, education, and discipline; and in all 
times, particularly in the last century, and in ours, 
nothing has been neglected that could prevent and 
ruin vocations to the priesthood, sacerdotal educa- 
tion and ecclesiastical discipline. Having to speak 
of this elsewhere, I will limit myself to a few 
words. 

Vocation. — The superior classes, invaded by 
incredulity and sensualism, are not content to 
abandon, almost exclusively to the people, the 
career, by excellence, that of devotedness to God 
and to men. They have tried to depopularize it, 
and have succeeded only too well in this, even 



Twenty- Eighth Entertainment. 411 

in view of their material interests, for they have 
given rise to that terrible question : What use are 
so many great gentlemen, wealthy stockholders, 
and proprietors? 

Education. — Clerical education, they say, is very 
poor in regard to knowledge, and perhaps also in 
virtue. It is true ; but who are those accusers of 
clerical education? They are the authors or par- 
tisans of the spoliation and demolition of all our 
ecclesiastical and monastic establishments of sacer- 
dotal education and profound studies of every kind; 
they are the oppressors of religious liberties, who 
have not ceased to say : Let us prevent the return 
of a Church and of religious societies powerful by 
word and works. 

Discipline. — The great nerve of Catholic disci- 
pline starts from the Holy See, arrives at every 
metropolis, is there displayed in the provincial 
synod, resides there in the metropolitan tribunal, 
thence it branches off through each diocese, where 
it develops its power over every priest by the dio- 
cesan synod, and by all the springs of episcopal 
administration. Well, everything has been done to 
break this powerful organization, and you, my 
friends, have also concurred in it. Is it not true, 
that when you have a priest according to your 
taste, as you say, but not according to that of the 
Church of Jesus Christ, you boldly assume his 
defence before all and against all ? What is the 
consequence ? The bishop, for fear of a greater 
evil, tolerates a suspected priest, confines himself 
to reprimands and exhortations, when energetic 
treatment would be necessary. The bishop might 



412 



The Peoples Ark. 



have saved that priest who was only on the br!nk 
of the precipice; you have thrown him down 
it, and once become a demon, he will drag you 
into it. 

Yes, my friends, the crime of the crimes of Eu- 
rope has long been the efforts of influential classes 
to secularize in every way the Catholic clergy, that 
is to say, to reduce it to be what it is in Protes- 
tant states, an excellent means of subduing the 
people under the government of sensualists. 

This is what renders imminent the solution of 
the great European trial, a solution which shall 
be the subject of the following entertainment. 




TWENTY-NINTH ENTERTAINMENT. 

Poverty of the solutions proposed by man — Grandeur op 
the solution prepared here below and decreed on 

HIGH. 

SOLUTION ! a solution ! a solution ! Such 
is, my friends, the general cry from the north 
to the south, from the east to the west. 
In truth, solutions are not wanting. Every 
one, placing himself in his own point of view, 
in that of his circle, of his village, at the most, of 
his nation, holds to one, which shall be our affair. 
Thus, for some, the solution is the return to 
absolute monarchy; for others, it is always the 
constitutional monarchy. For these it is a strong 
government, a military dictatorship, an empire; 
for those, a republic ; and there are a thousand 
republican solutions which can be reduced to 
three — the moderate and conservative republic, the 
progressive republic, and the social and demo- 
cratic republic; that is to say, the thoroughly 
revolutionary. 

For Germany, there is the imperial solution, 
divided into the x\ustrian and Prussian; then the 
republican solution, which wishes to make of the 
three states only one. 

For Russia, there is the grand solution which 

35 * 413 



414 The People's Ark. 

she has been preparing for so long a time, and 
which would place us all under the religious and 
political suzerainty of his majesty the Autocrat. 

For England, there is the solution, at once Pro- 
testant and industrial, which seeks the extinction 
of popery, and wishes, more than ever, to preserve 
its manufacturing and commercial monopoly, by 
employing the torches of Mazzini and his fol- 
lowers, to ruin the industry and commerce of the 
continent. 

Finally, under all these solutions, which cross 
one another in every direction in the upper and 
middle regions of politics, there is yours, honest 
petty proprietors and laborers of town and coun- 
try. When shall this brawl end ? you ask. When, 
in fine, shall w r e have a government which will 
assure order, without which there is liberty only 
for rascals ; a government that with order will 
procure for us that liberty, the most necessary in 
a country, yet the most forgotten — the liberty of 
attending to our work, and of giving to those who 
govern, the least possible allowance of men and 
money. 

Such, my friends, are some of the means by 
which they flatter themselves they can unravel 
or cut the stitches of the net-work interwoven 
throughout Europe. We may well say: Man pro- 
poses, but God disposes. The chains that bind 
us are of such strength, that no intellectual or 
moral power can remove or break them; they 
are so well adjusted about our necks that violent 
efforts to rid ourselves of them would only end 
in our strangulation. We ourselves have forged 



Twenty-Ninth Entertainment. 415 

those chains; like all sinners, "we are taken in our 
own nets," and if we perish, it will be like Judas, 
"by our own hands."* 

And why has Europe the rope around her neck? 
Because she has thrown down, has trodden under 
foot the yoke of the Ruler of rulers. From being 
sanctified as she was by Christianity, she has 
become secularized. For the divine right, that is 
to say, the Christian law regulating the duties and 
rights of all, of subjects as well as of sovereigns, 
and covering them with the seal of divine inviola- 
bility, we have substituted the right of the sove- 
reign, disposing of all secular and ecclesiastical 
rights, and recognizing no other duties than the 
inspirations of his haughty wisdom. 

To the unlimited right of the state personified 
in the sovereign, revolutions have caused to suc- 
ceed the yet more unlimited right of the state 
represented by the middle classes. 

Finally, ever descending the ladder of despotism, 
we reach its most brutal form, that of the state 
wholly democratized, that is to say, ruled by those 
factions most capable of misleading and perverting 
the masses. 

Protestant sovereigns killed the Catholic Church 
in their states, and substituted for it churches of 
their own fabrication. Catholic sovereigns, the 
better to protect the Church against the Head 
whom Jesus Christ has given her, took her under 
their hand, nationalized and royalized her as much 
as possible; and we still see kingdoms laboring 

* Psalm ix. 16, 17. 



41 6 The Peoples Ark. 

for this, as earnestly as in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. 

The conspiracy of temporal sovereignties has 
terribly shaken and broken the spiritual sove- 
reignty; but this still subsists, and is evidently the 
only one that shall have a future. Where are the 
monarchies which wished to exterminate it, or 
bring it under their power ? Some are smothered 
in filth; others have passed away under the hand 
of the executioner; others have been expelled by 
the vulgar rabble; some we see awaiting their 
hour, deprived of their liberty by the very legists 
who led them to imprison the Church. If there 
are still some who give signs of vigor, it is because 
that, here, there is still a powerful basis of Catho- 
licism ; there, as in Russia and England, there is 
an autocratic monarchy or oligarchy, capable of 
still galvanizing two great corpses : those corpses 
may, by a last effort, vomit over Europe the ele- 
ments of death which they bear within them ; but 
I defy them to establish their dominion therein, or 
even to maintain their preponderance. 

Those kingdoms, with their dependencies, guilty 
of felony towards Christ, are, then, some executed, 
others on the way to it. Could the latter sue for 
a return to favor? Yes; he who asks does not 
offend : even supposing that the kingdoms were no 
longer pardonable, the royal persons are always so. 

The citizen despots carried still farther than 
their royal predecessors the war against the Church. 
They said to her : " Both land and capital belong 
to us ; you shall not possess either rents or lands, 
but only a moderate provisional salary. Benevo- 



Twenty -Ninth Entertainment. /\iy 

lence belongs to the state; you shall, then, no 
longer warm in your bosom the suffering classes. 
The education of youth is our affair; be content 
to preach the catechism to whoever will go to 
hear you in the churches." 

And in fact, my friends, we see that she shall 
soon have no longer in all Europe, either rent-roll, 
or field, or edifice, of which it can be said : " This 
belongs to the Spouse of the Eternal Word, to the 
Mother of European civilization!" The Church 
still alleviates many sufferings, but there are others 
to which she can only give her tears. With the 
youth, dragged from her maternal hands, she has 
seen the masses of the people desert her temples. 

Honest citizen legists and lawyers, nothing is 
wanting to your triumph, but here is a little 
damper. 

Where are the incomes and stocks so certain as 
not to tremble under the threats of that bankruptcy 
to which all states advance, either willingly or of 
necessity? If I had any property that I cared for, 
invested in the public funds, I would withdraw it. 
But in what should I invest it ? Certainly not in 
houses or lands, for they are shaking and falling 
before the precursory signs of division, or rather 
of plunder. I know of no place so safe as the 
bosom of the poor — but I forget that their assist- 
ance has become an affair of the state. This is, in 
fact, the second chain which despotism has put 
around its neck. The poor, whether healthy or 
infirm, learning that alms is humbling, and that 
heaven is an invention of the priests, threaten to 
set the state on fire, if they be not assigned a com- 



4i 8 The Peoples Ark. 

fortable place in the terrestrial paradise. To those 
two chains is added a third, which of itself would 
suffice to strangle the most vigorous society. Edu- 
cation has become so secularized in all its branches, 
that youth is no longer willing to submit to 
restraint. The laboring class, which has been 
inspired with contempt for the divine offices of 
Sunday, frequents the tavern, at least on Monday, 
and the religion of the tavern is comprised in this 
principle : Seeing that the aristocrats refuse to 
divide with us, let us make an end of them! 

It is, then, evident that the middle classes, in 
trying to overthrow the Church and put it quietly 
in the grave, are twisting three ropes, which are for 
them the augurs of an evil hour. 

By their rage for centralization they have made 
capitals a scaffold to which executioners are not 
wanting, and a funereal pile which waits only a 
spark; by the implacable war they have waged 
against religious associations, they have left the 
field clear for infernal societies. 

The slaves enrolled by the Mazzinis, the Ledru- 
Rollins, the Struves, Heinzens, etc., are about to 
avenge those societies founded for the glory of 
God, and the service of men, by St. Benedict, St. 
Francis of Assisium, St. Ignatius, and so many 
others. 

This is admirable justice; but a justice fearful 
on account of the number of its victims. You, my 
friends, may not hope to escape it. 
For, alas ! in all times 
The lowly have paid for the follies of the great. 

I believe I have given superabundant proof in the 



Twenty-Ninth Entertainment. 419 

Reveil dn Peuple that all revolutions have weighed 
on your shoulders, and brought you only an 
increase of labor and misery. This one will make 
an end of you. The day on which an aristo should 
fall in his quality of aristo, those among you who 
would not wish to imbrue your hands in his blood 
by crying out: " Long live the guillotine !" should 
be aristos. You would either bow your heads 
under their sword, or try to put a bullet in their 
head or breast; in either case there would be an 
unprecedented massacre. When the devotees of 
the guillotine say to us : " '93 was but a faint dawning 
of the future that is being prepared ;" they speak 
more truly than they think. If they succeed in 
raising the red flag, during only one month, in the 
great European centres, they will make the tour 
of the continent by the glare of capitals in flames, 
enlightening all places with scenes of carnage and 
banquets of human flesh. If, then, it please the 
Supreme Ruler to save the masses still unperverted, 
He will say to the strong of ami, Arise, go forward! 
And these will not put the sword into the scabbard 
until they have engraven on grave-stones scattered 
from place to place, this inscription: ''Here lie 
the devotees of the guillotine, beneath the ashes 
of their mother; woe to him who will shed one 
tear over them." The kings of the future shall, 
probably, gain their crown as the first kings of the 
ancient world gained theirs, and the title of gods 
or demi-gods — by delivering the earth from the 
monsters that infected it. 

How shall Europe free herself from the cord and 
the stake? Shall it be by reestablishing, or by 



420 The People s Ark. 

better consolidating the monarchies, whether of the 
past or the present, by accepting them as the true 
principle of order and liberty? If any monarchy 
attempt to raise or consolidate itself before having 
made with eclat an act of reparation to the Mon- 
arch of monarchs, it shall immediately disappear 
beneath its ruins, with its restorers. 

What could you expect? Above, infinitely 
above all monarchs, by right and fact, there is the 
Eternal Monarch, the source of all right, of all 
legitimacy, of all power. 

I would strongly counsel monarchists and re- 
publicans of all shades, to weigh the rights of this 
Pretender of pretenders, such as they read them 
in the holy books, which are the programme of 
the divine pretensions, and in universal history, 
which is the relation of what nations have expe-. 
rienced under God's suzerainty, and under that 
of the enemies of God and men. While waiting 
for the result of that study, which is not the affair 
of a day or a year, here is a little summary 
of the divine right. 

The God-Man says : " I am the Creator, the 
Legislator, the Conservator, the Reedemer, the 
Supreme Judge, not only of individuals and nations, 
but also of all forms of government. I have given 
monarchies to nations which I had prepared for 
monarchy; I have given republics to nations 
which I shaped for republics; one is as dear 
to me as the other, and I preserve them with 
equal care in my love and in the love of the 
people, so long as they acknowledge and honor 
my sovereignty by their fidelity to my law. 



Twenty-Ninth Entertainment. 421 

"When, in a monarchy, a dynasty despises me, 
after one or two useless warnings I reject it. 
Such was the dynasty of Saul, my choice and 
that of the people. David, whom I substituted 
for him, and who was welcomed by the people, 
sinned. I chastised him in his own person and 
in his people, for both were as one before me; in 
other places, kings become usually despots and 
corrupters only through the servility and corrup- 
tion of the people. The chastisement having been 
operated, the crown passed to Solomon ; he being 
corrupted, became a corrupter, and of the twelve 
tribes that composed the kingdom, his successors 
preserved only two. 

" The kingdom of Juda and the kingdom of 
Israel were successively chastised and pardoned, 
until, finally, the evil increasing, I delivered them 
to the stranger. The former returned from Baby- 
lon and assumed a republican form, for I try by 
every means to lead nations back, sometimes 
chastising and saving monarchies by republics, and 
republics by monarchies. All forms have the same 
value before me, — that which is given them by 
my will, determined by men's submission to my 
law. 

"After some fair days under the chiefs that 
I gave them, the quasi-monarchical republic of 
Judea was justly placed under the power of the 
great republic which bore on its flanks the vast 
empire destined to prepare the way for my eternal 
empire. Descending then in person, for the reli- 
gious and social regeneration of the human race, 
particularly of my chosen nation, I w r as delivered 



4-2 2 The Peoples Ark. 

to the most cruel and ignominious death by the 
whole nation, acting through its sacerdotal college, 
through the college of its nobility and middle 
classes, and finally by the cry of the popular 
masses. Shortly afterwards, the Temple and Jeru- 
salem with its 1,200,000 inhabitants, was ruined 
as a capital has never been ruined, the nation 
scattered like the dust carried by the winds in a 
thousand different directions; and, after eighteen 
centuries, that dust, everywhere trodden under 
foot, has not yet been able to amalgamate itself 
with the dust of so many nations and empires ! 
" What I had done on a small scale and figura- 
tively in Palestine, I have done on a grand scale in 
Europe. I had taken one of the families issued 
from the blood of Abraham, to prepare the world 
for the humiliating fact of my Incarnation and my 
Passion. I chose the European family to cause 
me to be recognized and adored throughout the 
universe as the Saviour and Eternal Chief of hu- 
manity, enfranchised by my law, which is the perfect 
lazu of liberty* How many labors, how many pro- 
digies, during fifteen centuries, to purify that earth 
sullied by the long-continued reign of filthy and 
cruel monsters, and to prepare the new races 
which I called forth from unknown regions ? 
Monarchies, republics, royalty, nobility, magis- 
tracy, citizens, clergy, people, all, had been ren- 
dered great by my care; but at the moment in 
which I expected that the flowers and fruits of that 
tree, watered by so much apostolic blood and 

* St. James, Cath. Epis., ch. i. 25. 



Twenty- Ninth Entertainment. 423 

sweat, would shed in the universality of nations 
their divine perfume, and determine them to range 
themselves under the mild yoke of my law 7 , a great 
conspiracy burst forth against me and mine, and 
notwithstanding three centuries of disasters and 
severe yet merciful chastisements, that conspiracy 
has become universal. From the higher and 
middle classes, to the lowest stratum of society, 
there are only two cries, which amount to the same 
thing: Down with all the laws of God, interpreted 
and applied by the Church ! 

"In fine, among the immense majority of those 
who imagine themselves to be strong, some wish 
to do away with the principles of my government, 
others desire to abuse them to their own profit. 
Well, do you, the absolute enemies of conditional 
friends of my government, put yourselves at work, 
try to reconstruct something over the ruins heaped 
up by your folly! You shall not place two stones, 
but I will make them fly into dust. Either my 
law shall be the base and the crown of your laws, 
or, notwithstanding your lawyers and soldiers, or 
rather, by means of them, you shall arrive at my 
eternal tribunal, through carnage and incendiarism. " 

Such, my friends, is the solution which Plato 
Punchinello holds as certain. In truth, let us be 
frank ; what is wanting in this solution to be emi- 
nently just before God and before those men who 
have not their souls under their stomach? 

After all, who has created us, with the earth 
that bears and nourishes us, with the sun that 
warms and enlightens us? Who preserves us 
even to that hour which no human power can 



424 The People s Ark. 

either know or retard for a single instant? Are 
they monarchies, with their old or new dynasties ; 
republics with their constitutions more or less 
quickly changing? Could it be aristocracy, could 
it be democracy, in all their degrees and with all 
their great religious and political fabricators ? No; 
those are things and men, who, animated by the 
divine principle of life, lead to life, but who, directed 
by the spirit of death, conduct surely to death, 
both for time and eternity. When those things 
and their partisans fight as obstinately against the 
Author of life as they had done for some centuries, 
I do not see what could have hindered the Eternal 
Architect from breaking them. 1 have sometimes 
the insolence to say to Him: "In your place, Lord, 
I would not have waited so long. It is well indeed 
for the European Marmozet that you are what it 
will no longer recognize you to be : the God who 
suffers in time, in view of eternity I'' 

Could it be that the executive power was want- 
ing on high ? Ah, my friends, even though we 
ourselves should not have made the preparations 
for our torture, although the slaughtering dema- 
gogues whom we have made, enrolled, and armed^ 
should be wanting in intelligence and courage 
sufficient for the crime, cannot the Master, by one 
glance on the globe, make therein a derangement 
of which no human intellect would be able to 
divine the cause or prevent the effects? After 
much study, our wise men would tell us : It is a 
natural phenomenon! 

Yes, but that natural phenomenon, corrupting 
our aliments even under ground, produces famine, 



Twenty- Ninth Entertainment. 425 

which gnaws alike the intestines of kings, clergy- 
men, and statesmen, of the rich and of peasants; 
the natural phenomenon operates so quickly, that 
souls depart by millions and millions towards the 
supernatural world. No, most certainly, the means 
of making an end of us are not wanting on high, 
but the means visibly predestined are the cords 
twisted by our own hands; — the imitators of Judas 
shall end like him. 

Finally, were Europe to be wholly crushed, 
which I do not think, do you believe that Jesus 
Christ would be embarrassed to find its successors? 
If you ask me whence they should come, I, in my 
turn, would ask you, Whence came the long pro- 
cessions of barbarians who, from the fifth to the 
twelfth century, overran Europe, entering from all 
directions? 

The greater part of those nations knew not 
whence they came, or whither they were going. 
Composed at first of some nomadic families, they 
increased faster than the rabbits; they advanced, 
impelled by necessity, and by an unknown voice, 
which said to them: Go forward! 

Yes, my friends, by a little reflection on what I 
have said in the course of these entertainments, 
you will understand that what is demanded by the 
honest and reasonable partisans of those diverse 
solutions, can be obtained only by reconstituting 
Europe on the divine foundation of the Roman 
Catholic and apostolic religion. So long as this 
foundation shall not be accepted by the builders, 
whatever may be their banner, you may expect 
explosions, more and more terrific. 
36* 



426 The Peoples Ark. 

All that progress whose preservation we demand, 
and a progress far superior to all that hope can 
conceive, is assured to us for the moment in which 
the Catholic spirit shall penetrate individuals, 
families, parishes, provinces and countries, and 
binding these one with the other, shall throw down 
the walls of division raised between people by the 
infernal spirit of schism, heresy, and infidelity. 
Then, and only then, shall the immense material 
forces, which we turn against ourselves, take, 
under the inspiration of a truly Christian policy, 
an incomparable flight. 

But in order to arrive at that grand future, the 
only possible and the only probable, we must needs 
see issuing from the midst of our ruins, evangelical 
laborers, to whom alone it is given to establish the 
foundation of all social regeneration; the submis- 
sion of all to the law of justice and charity. What 
fills attentive observers with hope, is to see the 
Catholic priesthood arising, drawing up its ranks, 
while all around it is giving way and being dis- 
solved. But if the Spirit of truth and life is ener- 
getically revealed in the head and the principal 
members, what feebleness, what torpor here and 
there; what deplorable resistance in certain frac- 
tions of the clergy to the efforts of their chiefs to 
raise them above the miserable arena in which 
political parties work for our dissolution. 

Here I have nothing to say to the clergy, but 
to you Christians of the age, some monarchists, 
from the most absolute monarchy even to the 
most limited ; others, republicans from the most 
limited aristocracv even to the widest demo- 



Twenty- Ninth Entertainment. 427 

cracy, this is what I say: — Beware of making your 
priests descend from their sublime state of politi- 
cal neutrality, to range themselves under one or 
other of your standards. Your flag would ruin 
the priests, and the priests would ruin your flag. 
Understand, then, that the representative of Jesus 
Christ must not have any other political principles 
than those of Jesus Christ. Now what are those 
principles ? Is the Eternal Autocrat for the here- 
ditary monarchy or the elective, for the absolute 
monarchy or the limited, for the republic under 
one form or another? No, evidently not. He 
embraces, blesses and sustains all political forms, 
inasmuch as they serve His supreme end — the 
glory of God and the eternal salvation of men. 
He abandons them all to death, when they act 
contrary to His designs. 

Such must be the unchanging policy of the 
ministers and functionaries of the universal^ king- 
dom. Men of God, the primary Author of all 
forms of government, men of humanity which lives 
under thousands of different governmental con- 
stitutions, they must not assume colors, or wear 
mourning for any government whatever. 

Their regrets, incapable of raising the fallen 
regime, would compromise them with the new 
one, to the detriment of religion. Although they 
should be enemies of revolutions, because they 
are never accomplished without great disorders, 
Christain light shows them in those violent explo- 
sions, the consequence and just chastisement of 
inveterate disorders. In like manner, after having 
combated against vice, they receive without seve- 



428 The Peoples Ark. 

rity, at the door of the temple, the child of prosti- 
tution, and admit it among the children of God 
and of the Church; so likewise, when the new- 
born child of the revolution is presented for bap- 
tism, they have not to inquire regarding its birth : 
it is sufficient for them to know that it lives, 
that it demands baptism, to address to it the usual 
questions : " Do you believe in the law of Jesus 
Christ? Do you know the obligations it imposes 
on you, and are you determined to fulfil them ?" 
On the affirmative reply of the sponsors, the priest 
privately baptizes the child of disorder, in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; 
and as far as the baptized one shall not violate 
the principal obligations of a Christian govern- 
ment, although you may well call it a bastard, 
the priests will treat it as the legitimate child of 
God and the Church. The mission of the Catholic 
priesthood is not to pronounce on the legitimacy 
of the origin of governments, but to subject every 
government to the primary principle of all legi- 
timacy, — the law of God. Had it not acted thus, 
what government could it now recognize? 

Beware, then, my friends, of causing your priests 
to deviate from the line of policy which has always 
been that of the Church; it would do much harm 
both to religion and to your party. I have said 
somewhere, and it will not be amiss to repeat, that 
"the priest who enters the service of any party 
whatsoever, is a deserter from his divine post, a 
Jonas, who draws the tempest on himself and the 
vessel that carries him." This abstention of the 
clergy in political questions of a secondary nature 



Twenty- Ninth Entertainment. 429 

t 

is especially necessary in our day, when society, 
broken into fragments by party spirit, has no 
chance of salvation save in a return to the grand 
religious principles which can alone conciliate all 
parties by ruling over all. 

But that the branches of the priesthood may 
have the vigor necessary to the production of 
the fruit of life, it is indispensable that they be 
united to that trunk which is in Rome. I think I 
have already proved to you, my friends, that the 
religion of Jesus Christ is inseparable from the 
priesthood to which it has been confided, and that 
the Catholic priesthood is inseparable from its 
head, the Roman Pontiff, the successor of St. 
Peter. 

What are all those clerical bodies separated from 
Rome ? We have seen that they are state officials, 
richly paid to keep the people in hatred of that 
religion which saves both soul and body, and to 
make them a docile herd under the power of the 
superior classes. 

What is proposed to themselves by all those 
who push the heads of a state to break with Rome? 
They wish to free themselves from the religion of 
Jesus Christ, in order to make one which shall 
aid them in imposing on and wronging the people. 

What is the papacy? It is the only infallible 
guarantee which the lower classes possess against 
the oppressors of both soul and body. By the 
solemn voice proceeding from Peter's throne, re- 
peated immediately by the bishop in every diocese, 
by the priest in every parish of the Catholic uni- 
verse, the people, menaced in their religion by the 



430 The Peoples Ark. 

authors of schism and heresy, are able to say to 
them: Do you submit yourselves to the judgment 
of the Church of Jesus Christ, or do you persist in 
your work ? If you persist, you are by this very 
fact convicted of the greatest crime of which one 
could be guilty against a nation, you rob it of the 
life of the soul. Robbers among robbers, flee the 
country, or ! 

Incorruptible defender of the rights and liberties 
which all owe to the Gospel, the Pope is for you, 
my friends, the sole defender of those rights and 
liberties. You have, doubtless, in the superior 
classes many devoted friends, but who are they ? 
You know they are Catholics in name and in 
effect. But there is also a multitude of ambitious 
hypocrites and enraged despots, who wish to 
detach you from the religion of the Pope and the 
universe, only to drag you into their stables. Re- 
cognize them by their hatred to the Holy See. 
Those wretches feel strongly that it is the greatest 
obstacle to their designs against you ; they feel 
also that it is a power whose arms, how feeble 
soever they may appear, end by breaking all arms. 

Yes, my friends, if the popes have not an army 
to execute their sentences, they have something 
better. The more the world laughs at excom- 
munications, the more seriously shall they be 
received on high. 

Assemble around a throne six hundred thou- 
sand brave soldiers, commanded by one hundred 
generals, each of whom is worth an army, com- 
manded themselves by the " Little Corporal/' 
worth a hundred generals. Let the latter say: 



Tzventy- Ninth Enter tai?iment. 43 1 

" Does the Pope then believe that his excommuni- 
cations will cause the weapons to fall from my 
soldiers' hands?" The God of armies will say to 
the cold : " Go and do what I do not wish the 
Cossacks to do." The cold obeys; the arms fall 
from his warriors' hands, the warriors fall on their 
arms, and those spared by the cold carry their 
flag and gather some laurels in the very face of 
the Cossacks. — This was a little regard which God 
willed to show to the great excommunicated 
general in his fearful discomfiture. After all, Na- 
poleon compared well, in a religious point of view, 
with the potentates who, after having made a 
jumble of the treaties of Vienna, have so jumbled 
Europe that to-day she is utterly worn out. 

I have given you, my friends, the solution of the 
great European trial, which may be thus summed 
up : — European society, in revolt during three cen- 
turies against God and His Church, is condemned 
to make reparation within a very short time, under 
penalty of being treated like the Jewish family. 

In the following entertainment, which shall be 
the last, I will say a word on the consequences of 
the European solution, as also on the eternal solu- 
tion of the great humanitarian trial. 




THIRTIETH ENTERTAINMENT. 



Temporary consequences -of the European solution — Eter- 
nal SOLUTION FOR THE HUMAN RACE. 

N the terrible crisis through which we are now 
passing, whatever part may be taken by Eu- 
rope, Jesus Christ has taken His : — before the 
great day of justice, when all the angelic hosts, 
and all human generations will bend the knee 
before His eternal royalty, He wishes to see the 
advent of the great day of mercy, when all nations 
joining hands at the foot of the Cross, will 
adore Him in His quality of God, the Saviour of 
humanity. 

To judge by the preparations, that day is not 
distant. What are our advances in the arts, par- 
ticularly our railroads, our steam, our electric tele- 
graph, our trials of aerial navigation, etc.? 

They are for the final explosions of evangelical 
lio-ht, what the Roman roads were for the first. 
The immense superiority of our means of commu- 
nication and action, presages results of a grandeur 
incomparable in the history of the human race. 
Shall we merit by our conversion to become the 
eiorious instruments of the universal conversion, 

<r> 

or, shall we, by our impenitence, be like the ancient 
432 



Thirtieth Entertainment. 433 

Romans, only the blind pioneers of the spiritual 
conquerors of the world ? Behold, my friends, 
what is left to our choice. 

Nevertheless, the Eternal Wisdom will not be 
foiled in His views on the European family; Christ 
will not lose the fruits of the labors, tears and 
blood of His laborers from Peter and Paul down 
to Pius IX., and those who second him in the 
present circumstances. If the Catholic minority 
cannot prevent the catastrophe to which we are 
being driven by the governing majority, even by 
the very means which they take to avert it, it can 
at least temper it, abridge its horrors. It will gain 
in it yet more apostles than martyrs ; and those 
apostles, escaped ix ova the land of fire, will be for 
the universe what the Christian Jews were, when 
they escaped from the disorders of the deicidal 
nation, — a powerful leaven of Catholic fermentation 
in the universe. The eclat of our chastisement 
will give to their words an irresistible force. Who 
does not see that the last explosion of our revo- 
lutionary volcanoes, in causing the ruin of our 
empires undermined by the antichristian spirit, 
will resound a hundred times farther than did the 
burning of Jerusalem ? At the fall of the thun- 
derbolt, nations, arising from the sleep of error, 
will fall at the foot of the cross, crying out: Lord, 
Lord, it was time ! That divine charter of universal 
enfranchisement which our European ancestors 
had been charged to make us know and love, but 
which, in their sacrilegious folly, they wished to 
stifle in their own bosom, it is just that we read it 
by the light of their funeral-pile. 



434 The Peoples Ark. 

Let us not doubt it, my friends, everything is 
ready for great things. Listen not to those blind 
ones who, discerning nothing in heaven or earth, 
in the past or the present, say : The world goes 
and comes as it always did. — Poor deluded men, 
where then, do you wish it to go, since it is at the 
end of the way, and since every thoughtful mind 
agrees that we now live only by expedients, and 
that the expedients that do not harm us end in 
smoke? Yes, we are well taken in the inextricable 
chains forged by our would-be great men, but the 
ends of those chains are held by the God-Man, 
who wills, with that will which nothing can resist, 
that we should serve to the regeneration of the 
universe, either by our speedy return to His law, 
cr by the awful solemnity of our punishment. He 
has done too much for Europe; Europe has done 
too much against Him, for it to be able to avert 
the greatness of its punishment, otherwise than by 
the generosity of its penitence. 

Now the penance for us, the turbulent race of 
Japhet, a cosmopolitan and travelling people, is not 
to cover ourselves with ashes and tears; it is to 
repair our scandals, and fully accomplish our sub- 
lime mission; it is to take the pilgrim's staff and 
the apostle's scrip. Our insatiable avarice and our 
disastrous rivalries have carried to every corner of 
the globe the terror of our arms, the infection of 
our vices; it is necessary, then, that our charity, 
truly Catholic, should display the omnipotence of 
its remedies, and cause to be shed on all nations 
the divine perfume of Christian virtues. In a word, 
we are destined speedily to enlighten the world by 



Thirtieth EtiiertainmenL 435 

the brilliant rays of our faith, or by the fire called 
down by our impurity and infidelity. 

In announcing to you, my friends, a speedy 
solution, followed by a magnificent future for the 
human race, I do not wish you to be deluded with 
regard to the nature of that future, which most of 
you will be able to hail only in the distance. I 
would not wish that you should envy your grand- 
children a happiness which shall indeed be great, 
but, after all, shall be only a small amount com- 
pared to that which may be tasted by men on the 
theatre of combat and trial. This triumph of truth 
and love over error and hatred will be neither 
complete nor definite. It will be a rest more or 
less long and delightful, in the laborious journey 
of humanity, before that frightful reaction of evil 
which shall cause to rise over the last ruins of the 
world the day of eternal justice. 

Then, and only then, shall we have the solution 
of solutions. Then Jesus Christ, the Glorified and 
the Glorifier of His own, will give a new sense 
to those words which His enemies have so much 
abused against His Church: " My kingdom is not 
of this world!" 

This kingdom of God, the promise of which 
fills the holy books, and which the Church invites 
us to beg for each day, by the petition, Thy king- 
dom come; — this kingdom, of which that future 
foretold above will be only the shadow — this king- 
dom, my friends, will be displayed in the eternal 
world with a magnificence which no human 
thoughts could conceive, no human tongue des- 
cribe. 



436 The Peoples Ark. 

This kingdom of Jesus Christ will be displayed 
without measure in His elect, to whom He will 
say: While so many wretches overwhelmed me 
with contempt and outrages, you publicly made 
me to reign over you, at least in your last hour, 
and you contributed by your prayers and good 
example to make me reign over your brethren : 
come, then, you blessed of my Father, enjoy the king- 
dom prepared for you from the beginning; not satis- 
fied that you should reign with me over the uni- 
versality of creatures, I desire that you reign over 
me ; you have done my will ; / will eternally do 
yours* 

This reign of Jesus Christ will weigh, with inex- 
orable justice, on the hosts of cowards, of filthy and 
cruel monsters, who have departed this life without 
having made honorable reparation to the Author 
of life. He will say to them : You scornfully 
rejected the sweet and light yoke of the law which 
I gave you ; I, who had created and preserved you 
by the inspirations of my love; I, who, in order 
to deliver you from the slavery of Satan and your 
evil passions, had carried my love so far as to 
become the victim, in my own person and in my 
church, of the long-continued fury of Satan and 
his followers. Your life has been only a stolid 
indifference or a satanic aversion to my doctrine, 
and you have applauded every word opposed to 
my word, or that of my Church. Well! go then, 
wretches, drag in the lowest abysses of my empire 
that yoke of torture and ignominy made by your 

* Psalm cvi. 30. 



Thirtieth Entertainment. 437 

own hands. Submit finally to that sentence which 
I caused to resound ten thousand times in your 
ears, but which was answered only by your sar- 
casms : Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for your master, and for all the accomplices 
of his absurd war against the absolute King of 
time and eternity. 

Such is, my friends, the sentence which shall 
end that final discussion of which I have spoken 
in the last lesson of the Reveil dn Peuple, a sen- 
tence which, in assigning to every one that place 
prepared for him in the everlasting kingdom, shall 
render all claims useless, and shall close forever 
the great suit opened since the beginning of ages 
between the servants of God and the slaves of the 
great beast. Some of you, according to what Mr. 
Teacher remarked not long ago, have still a diffi- 
culty in reconciling with the goodness of God, the 
idea of poor creatures being eternally the victims 
of the errors of a life so fleeting. I limit myself to 
two or three reflections, which I beg them to medi- 
tate on in the sanctuary of their conscience. 

First, when there is question of pronouncing on 
the goodness of God and the eternal future of men, 
who is the most competent judge? Is it Jesus 
Christ, or is it I, even were I supported by the 
w T hole host of cavillers ? Do I thoroughly know 
the Divine Being? Have I exactly measured the 
extent of His goodness and justice? Have I made 
man ? Can I know exactly the proportions given 
to this mysterious being? Is it I who have joined 
to a handful of clay, marvellously organized, a 
soul so great that nothing here below can content 
37* 



438 The Peoples Ark. 

it? No, this is the work of the Word made flesh, 
who has said: "I am the principle and the end, 
the author and finisher of everything that exists. . . 
I am the truth and the life." It would, then, be an 
unpardonable folly to prefer on this subject my 
opinion and that of my companions, to the opinion 
of Jesus Christ, expressed in the most formal 
manner in a hundred places of Scripture; an 
opinion constantly published and defended by the 
Catholic Church, and invariably believed by all 
her children; an opinion, in fine, which is still that 
of the infidel world ; for it is well proved that all 
nations, ancient and modern, have believed in an 
eternity of torments for the wicked. 

Secondly, the dogma of an eternity of punish- 
ment is not only eminently humanitarian and Chris- 
tian, it is yet more indispensable to make men and 
Christians. When self-worshippers say to me : 
The dogma of hell is calculated to make base and 
servile souls ; we wish to have men who serve God 
and their brethren through the noble motive of 
love ! — when, I say, I hear all this prating, I keep 
my eye on those who speak, and I soon have full 
proof that those grand souls love everything but 
God and their brethren, and that they would 
willingly set fire to the world for the greater glory 
of their pride and their appetites. The fear of hell 
alone does not suffice to make us walk for a long 
time in the paths of virtue; but it is a curb neces- 
sary to check the sinner in the ways of sin, and 
prevent him from falling into them again. " The 
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," as 
the Holy Spirit tells us, and as facts clearly prove. 



Thirtieth Entertainment. 439 

Where shall we find works and virtues truly- 
worthy of a friend of God and man? In the souls 
most distinguished by their faith in the severity 
of God's judgments. Whence flow the vices, dis- 
orders and crimes which desolate society? From 
the forgetfulness, and above all, from the denial 
of a hell. In fine, it is the unshaken faith in the 
eternal torments of hell that peoples the earth 
with penitents and Christians more or less vir- 
tuous, and heaven with the elect: no enlightened 
moralist has a doubt of it. It is the disbelief of 
this fundamental article, which, in becoming gen- 
eral, has brought hell upon earth. There is a 
host of unbelievers, who by their works merit the 
answer given to his sans-cidottes judges by a holy 
priest, immolated by the inquisitors of '93. Those 
wretches, taking pleasure in insulting their victim 
before delivering him to the executioner, asked 
him: "Are you so foolish as to believe in hell ?" 
" Citizens, if I had not believed in it up till now, 
you would make me believe in it. ,, 

Thirdly; the eternity of pain, my friends, is the 
sovereignly just consequence of the plan of crea- 
tion ; a plan eminently worthy of the grandeur 
of God and the dignity of man. 

What did God propose to Himself in creating 
us? He wished that we should be His image 
and likeness, and by consequence, imperishable as 
Himself. Is not this beautiful ? Who amongst 
us, that has not lost his mind, would wish not to 
exist? The sentiment, the desire of immortality 
and the horror of nonentity are so lively in the 
human conscience, that no nation, how degraded 



44-0 The People s Ark. 

soever in a religious point of view, has ever 
doubted the eternity of the soul. 

To the divine seal of immortality our Heavenly 
Father has joined the royal character of freedom: 
sublime gift, which places between us and animals 
an infinite distance, makes us the arbiters of our 
fate, and cooperators with God in His work by 
excellence; — the salification of our own soul and 
those of our brethren. He has said to us: "All 
creatures are in my hand only blind instruments 
which accomplish my will without knowing it; 
but as for you, my children, I wish that you 
should know it, and by your free concurrence, 
during the trial of the present life, to the execution 
of my designs, you may merit to be associated to 
my eternal royalty in the better life. Behold my 
commandments, if you keep them, they will keep 
you. . . . Fire and water are before you, choose. 
Life and death are in your power; only that 
shall be given to you which you have willed."* 

See, my friends, what God has said to us, and I 
have given you in the course of these entertain- 
ments an idea of what Infinite Charity has done to 
facilitate to men the knowledge and accomplish- 
ment of His law. Let us now see what men say 
and do. 

Some respond to the divine appeal: "Yes, Lord, 
cost what it may, we will keep your command- 
ments." God immediately takes them by the hand 
and says: "Courage, my children, inasmuch as you 
shall be faithful, I will be with you, and we will 
advance from victory to victory until the eternal 



* Ecclesiasticus, ch. xv. 15-17. 



Thirtieth Entertainment. 441 

crown be placed upon your head." All difficulties 
vanish, and the interior contentment which those 
souls find in the midst of the severest trials, is to 
them a pledge and foretaste of the joys to come, 
1 have said to you, and I repeat, nay, I will prove 
to whoever wishes it, that if there are any happy 
and wholly contented persons in this life, they 
are those true Christians who do not seek their 
satisfaction in it. 

The adorers of their own pride and desires, 
reply to all the exterior and interior calls of the 
king of souls: "We recognize no other law than 
our own will !" — If their tongue does not say this, 
their conduct does. Behold in effect, those w 7 ho 
run after as many idols as they have passions and 
caprices. God, on whom they turn their backs, 
might do the same to them; but no, Divine Charity 
ceases not to call on them, to pursue them by the 
exhortations of His ministers, by the voice of their 
conscience, by the gnawings of remorse, by salutary 
examples, some of justice, others of mercy; finally 
by chagrins, sorrow, and anguish, sown along their 
way ; for even in this world, w r hoever does evil is 
unhappy, and although he may seem to us to be 
in delights, he carries within his heart a miniature 
hell. Should those prodigals pause in the very 
road to the abyss, and sincerely implore pardon 
even at the last hour, the God of Charity hastens 
to clothe them with the nuptial robe, and their 
admission to the banquet is made a great feast in 
heaven* If, on the contrary, they resist, even to 
the end, the pleadings of divine mercy, the hour 

* St. Luke, ch. xv. 7. 



442 The People s Ark. 

strikes, the Supreme Judge says: Let us make up 
our accounts! 

The accounts, my friends, shall be speedily 
made up with those souls born in the bosom of 
light, who have never wished to settle accounts 
with Jesus Christ and His Church. In the light 
which shall then invest them, those unhappy souls 
will see all their sophisms vanish, and will com- 
prehend that it is absolutely impossible for the 
animal man, flesh and blood, ever to possess the 
kingdom of God.* If they have done any good 
of which they have not received the reward, they 
shall have a diminution in the intensity of the 
pain, but not in its duration. After which the 
Judge will say: "Follow the masters whom I could 
not prevent you from choosing; your eternal future 
is at once their affair and yours, only as hell 
remains subject to my justice, I will see that 
Satan and his accomplices and yours, do not, in 
their rage, go beyond the degree of torments 
merited by your evil deeds !" 

What is there, then, my friends, in this sentence 
and its consequences, irreconcilable with the divine 
goodness? This fate, you say, is fearful, terrible. 
Yes, fearful, terrible, indeed! would that you could 
well comprehend it, for it is the infallible means of 
averting it! Were hell to be only the reunion, in a 
less desolate region, of all those monsters of per- 
versity that there have ever been, from the cor- 
rupter of angels and men to the ferocious murderer 
of Abel, and from Cain to Judas, and from Judas 
to the latest Cains and Judases whom the earth 

* St. Paul. 1 Cor. xv. 50. 



Thirtieth Entertainment. 443 

will bear, would anything be wanting to justify the 
definition given of it by the Scripture : // is the 
abode of eternal horrors? But is this fate unme- 
rited? Is it not the voluntary, nay, the obstinate 
work of those who receive it ? 

I do not think there is any necessity of saying 
to you again what I have said elsewhere, that, 
according to Catholic doctrine, every one shall be 
judged according to his works, and that every one's 
works shall be judged according to his lights. No 
one, therefore, shall be punished for the evil he 
has not known or could not have known; no one 
shall be judged guilty of ignorance which he could 
not have avoided. As to those who accuse the 
Church of holding as condemned to eternal fire, 
children dying unbaptized, or good and honest 
unbelievers who have not professed our religion 
because they have not known it, look on them ? my 
friends, as ignorant fools or fanatical calumniators 
of our faith. 

It is true that every well-instructed Catholic 
firmly believes, on the express word of Jesus Christ 
and His Church, that no soul shall be admitted to 
see the face of God and to enjoy the infinite felicity 
promised to His elect, if it be not qualified for it 
by the supernatural virtue of baptism, real or of 
desire. But we believe our God to be too just and 
too good, and the future world too great, not to 
include therein a series of existences more or less 
happy, for those souls who have preferred good to 
evil, according to their knowledge, or who, at least, 
have not personally abused the great benefit of 
existence. 



444 1-he People s Ark. 

This being supposed, I address myself to you, 
my friends, who have been urged by Christian 
light on every side, for ten, twenty, thirty, fifty 
years; you, on whom it now makes, by these enter- 
tainments, another effort which will, probably, be 
its last appeal to a great number; what pretext 
will you be able to urge against the awful sentence, 
if you should have the misfortune to appear before 
the Redeemer without that robe of innocence, 
either preserved or rewon, with which you were 
invested at the sacred font, on that day when the 
joyous sound of bells announced to the world a 
new child of God and of the Church, a future heir 
of the eternal kingdom ? 

Will you then say to the Master what you say 
to His ministers, — that you have not settled your 
doubts ; that you are waiting for the gift of faith ; 
that for the moment, you have other things to do ; 
that, after all, religious affairs are something that 
regards yourself, and that you are well content to 
treat of them with God ? — I am convinced that 
you will not think of alleging such reasons; for 
you should soon hear the answer of the Eternal 
Reason: "As you have not had time to think of me 
or my commandments, go, ask the reward of your 
great occupations from the master whose inspira- 
tions you have so well followed." 

Will you say that you have been weak, and that 
the greater number has drawn you ? No, you will 
not, for this answer would not be deferred : " I have 
subjected the body to strength; I have sometimes 
suffered my purest virgins to be dragged to places 
of infamy, and the outrages of hell have but made 



Thirtieth Entertainment. 445 

them greater in heaven ; but I have so admira- 
bly constituted souls, especially those whom, like 
yours, I have washed in the bath of my blood, that 
not one shall ever be able to say that she has been 
forced against her will. As yours has allowed 
herself to be dragged even unto the end, let her 
follow in the train of those who have dragged her. 
My justice will not subject you to all the torments 
of the great murderers of souls, but you shall ever 
be what you have wished to be, the dupes and 
victims of the masters you have preferred to mc." 

If Jesus Christ were not to act thus; if He were 
to push His complaisance to His enemies so far as 
to gainsay the promises and threats sealed with 
His blood and that of so many martyrs, I acknow- 
ledge my friends, that I should no longer consider 
Him as the true God and the true Man. Let us not 
deceive ourselves regarding His divine character: 
He is the God of charity, the God of mercy, but 
He is also the God of justice, inexorable for those 
who have despised the prodigious inventions of 
His charity and mercy. 

It is not the enormity of the crimes that closes 
His heart to pity. Give me a fearful criminal, who, 
opening his soul to the breath of that grace, shed 
everywhere around sinners, says: Lord, my crimes 
are enormous, but your mercy is still greater; 
grant me strength to weep over them and confess 
them ! — Repentance comes with such abundance, 
that this demon, often purified by his love and 
tears before being so by the sacrament, becomes 
the object of the most special favors of the King 
of souls. Jesus Christ knows not how to refuse 

38 



446 The Peoples Ark. 

anything to him who does such honor to His 
charity. If you wish to obtain great things, employ 
the prayers of a great sinner truly converted. 

But if Jesus Christ grants everything to the 
criminal who humbles himself, He is inexorable 
towards the pride that will not submit to the 
conditions required for pardon. He who, in order 
to save us, did not fear to humble Himself even to 
our nothingness in His incarnation, in His passion; 
He, who, for so many ages, has remained humbled 
in the Eucharist under the hands of His ministers, 
and the will of those who receive Him, has He not 
a right to require that we humble ourselves from 
time to time under the hand of His ministers of 
reconciliation, obliged in turn to humble themselves 
under the hand of one another? 

Yes, my friends, the God-Man is love and im- 
measurable goodness towards every living soul 
that says to Him : I desire to believe and obey, 
help me ! — But He is haughtiness, inflexibility 
itself before the enemy of God, of angels and of 
men, before the proud one who says : I will not 
obey ! 

With a Monarch thus disposed, so worthy of all 
our adorations, but incapable of capitulating with 
reasoners having no faith in His word, w 7 hat must 
we do, my friends ? I am going to tell you in a 
few words. 





=^,e T7 ~.-s^ 



CONCLUSION. 

'HE first homage that we owe to Infinite Wis- 
dom, my friends, is the submission of our 
opinions to^ the divine opinion, always living, 
always pure in the teachings of the Church 
of Jesus Christ. Without faith, it is impossible to 
please God.* 

Faith being a gift of God, which is lost by pride 
and ignorance, let us humbly and earnestly beg 
the preservation and increase of this indispensable 
gift, and neglect none of the means given us for 
our religious instruction, and that of those under 
our care. 

Let us not expose our faith by giving ear to the 
discourses of irreligious persons, or by reading 
their books, unless authorized. As to those who 
tell you that you would do well to learn the 
reasons for and against, and that you are wise 
enough to retain the good and reject the evil, look 
on them as poisoners. It is as if they were to say: 
Your stomach is strong enough to eat poisoned 
meats, it will digest all that is nutritious in them, 
and reject what is poisonous. — Believe me, my 

* St. Paul. Heb. xi. 6. 

447 



448 The Peoples Ark. 

friends, your mind is yet more feeble than your 
stomach; if it wishes to take what is for and what 
is against matters of faith, it will keep the latter 
and reject the former. This is what happens to 
those far advanced in unbelief. The religious 
word pleases them as much as holy w r ater does 
their master. They are possessed persons, whom 
we must not hope to instruct- until their deliver- 
ance be obtained from God. 

But faith without works is dead.* Now what 
are the w r orks of the faith which lives, which vivi- 
fies the Christian soul? It is before all things, the 
observance of God's commandments. If you wish 
to enter into life, says the Master, keep the com- 
mandments, f And it is necessary to keep all 
without any distinction, for an apostle tells us: 
Whoever violates the law in one point, though he 
observe all the rest, disobeys God as much as if he 
violated all.t To make a choice in that which 
God commands, to adopt this article and reject 
that, is to constitute one's self the judge of the 
divine law, it is revolt, it is the crime of heresy. 

We must then observe, in the same spirit of 
submission, the precepts of the Church. Were 
a Catholic to neglect the commands of the Church, 
yet be faithful to the commandments of God, (which 
would, I believe, be without example,) he would 
nevertheless, be in formal opposition to the com- 
mand of Jesus Christ to hear the Church, under 
pain of being treated as the heathen and the pub- 

* St. James ii. 26. f St. Matth. xix. 17. 

t St. James ii. 10. 



Conclusion. 449 

lican. To regard the ecclesiastical laws of general 
discipline as laws purely human and importing 
little to salvation, is a gross and culpable igno- 
rance, it is to tread under foot the divine words to 
the heads of the Church: "Whatever you shall 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. . . . Go, 
teach, regenerate nations and individuals, teach 
them to observe all whatsoever I have commanded 
you ; behold I am with you all days, etc. Who- 
ever despises you despises me, etc." 

What renders the transgression of the command- 
ments of the Church unpardonable, is the facility 
with which we can obtain dispensation or commu- 
tation when the works prescribed are too difficult 
for us. But this dispensation or commutation 
is the business of the ecclesiastical authority, to 
which we must render homage by making it the 
judge of our reasons. Fast, abstinence, abstaining 
from labor on certain festivals, etc., are not, of 
themselves, works essential to salvation, but no 
one can be saved without obedience to the Church 
that prescribes them. I think I have already told 
you, that the great number of the contemners of 
the laws of the Church, should not give us any 
security: the Supreme Judge of the living and the 
dead does not say to us, Do what you see others 
do; but, Do what I command you by my Church, 
for whose establishment and conservation I did 
not disdain to humble myself and to suffer beyond 
measure ! If you be ashamed of me before men, 
I will be ashamed of you before my Father. 
Whether we be repulsed from heaven for having 
despised the commandments of God, or those of 
38* 



450 The People s Ark. 

the Church, will make little difference to us; we 
shall none the less descend into the sorrowful 
kingdom of the Transgressor of transgressors, 
there to dwell for all eternity. 

But the virtue of Christian virtues, that which 
animates and crowns all others, is divine charity. 
And the great end of Christian charity is to labor 
that all men, without exception, be united as mem- 
bers of the same body, in the knowledge and love 
of their adorable Head, Jesus Christ. This is, 
as we have seen, the great principle of the eternal 
salvation of souls, and the temporal salvation of 
society. The soul that loves not is dead,* says 
the Apostle of charity. And we plainly see that 
a country in which charity is crushed with its 
indispensable principle faith, becomes a carcass 
torn asunder by the egotism of parties, and de- 
livered to the workings of every vice. 

The most necessary, the most meritorious, the 
most efficacious of charities, is to procure for souls 
their divine pasture, the great remedy of all our 
evils, — faith in Jesus Christ. The Christian faith, 
in entering into a poor family, does therein more 
good than a great inheritance, which would, pro- 
bably, introduce only an increase of vices. With 
faith, arrive peace, union, patience, love of labor, 
of economy, the good education of children, and 
finally, that which can ameliorate all evils, — the 
hope of the eternal possession of all good. 

Such is, my friends, the treasure you must pro- 
cure, first for yourselves, and those under your 

t St. John, I. Epist. iii. 14. 



Conclusion. 45 1 

care; then, for your neighbors, and finally, for all 
those who are still buried in the darkness of error, 
who, on the great day of justice shall have a right 
to complain of your indifference, if you neglect 
the means in your power of contributing to their 
conversion. In the Tenth Entertainment, I have 
said a few words to you of the Propagation of the 
Faith y that Catholic work by excellence, and of the 
spiritual and temporal blessings you would draw 
upon your families by aggregating yourself to it. 
To those who find it too much to give an alms of 
one cent a week, I would say: For this intention 
cast into the Catholic treasury at least the tribute 
of a short daily prayer. 

Prayer, my friends, is the infallible art of arresting 
the justice of God, and, what is more difficult, of 
vanquishing the pride and obstinacy of man. It 
was the prayers of our saints yet more than their 
words, which converted Europe. The lightnings 
and thunders of the Catholic word will not save 
Europe, nor other continents, if they be not ac- 
companied by a shower of graces obtained by a 
grand concert of prayers. Pray, then, my friends, 
and you will do more in the sight of God for the 
salvation of the world, than those who, like me, 
preach much yet do not pray enough. 

What prayer? you ask. First, that which in its 
divine brevity comprises all, and is the work of the 
Divine Master of prayer. To aid you in saying it 
with an intelligent heart, I will here give you a 
little commentary on it, which shall be a resume 
of our entertainments. 

Our Father t who art in heaven. — Yes, Lord, 



452 The Peoples Ark. 

thou art the Father of all classes of society, but 
particularly of the people, always the victims of 
the pride and covetousness of the great, wherever 
thou are not recognized and revered as the Father, 
the Legislator, the Saviour, and Supreme Judge 
of the great and the lowly. The people are the 
creation of the blood of thy Son, of the long-con- 
tinued devotedness of His apostles and His priests. 

We were counted as nothing in society, so long 
as its chiefs did not descend with us into the 
baptismal font, there to receive and acknowledge 
our dignity of children and heirs of the King of 
kings. It is sufficient to cast a glance on those 
nations that ignore us, to understand that, if we 
were not Christians we should be neither citizens 
nor even men. Therefore let us consider as the 
greatest enemies of the people, those who preach to 
us the contempt of thy law and thy Church. 

Hallowed be thy name! — Yes, Lord, may all 
names be abased before thy name; and may every 
name that would dare to exalt itself to the preju- 
dice of thine, be forever confounded. The names 
of false gods and of false great men, have only 
caused the human family to be divided into thou- 
sands and thousands of fractions, provoked to 
mutual destruction. Grant that, by the triumph 
of thy Church, thy blessed name, adored through- 
out the universe, may extinguish all hatreds, all 
divisions, and finally establish the happy religious 
and political fraternity of nations. 

Thy kingdom come! — Every man, every party 
that wishes to reign over us without having thee 
to reign over it, is a tyrant, an oppressor. We 



Conclusion. 453 

have had enough of those reigns and legislations 
created and managed by ambitious men without 
respect for thy law, without love for thy people. 
Give us, in fine, governments profoundly Christian; 
it is the only means of delivering us from the 
demon of revolution and the excesses he excites. 
But as thy kingdom on earth shall always have 
many enemies, and shall be incessantly combated, 
enkindle in our souls a lively faith in that kingdom 
promised by thee to those who, here below, allow 
thee to reign over their souls. 

May thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven! — Human wills, when they are not recti- 
fied and fortified by thine, tend towards evil. Our 
evils, whether domestic, civil, or political, are all 
born of the depravity and opposition of wills. 
Reconcile them, O Lord, by subjecting them to 
the sweet and light yoke of thy law. 

Give us this day our daily bread! — Thanks for 
the fruitfulness thou hast given to the earth and 
to the labor that we bestow on it. It is not, O 
Lord, material bread which we need ; it is the 
celestial bread, which, ennobling the souls of the 
rich and the poor, causes both to content them- 
selves with necessaries ; the first, substitute the 
calculations of charity for those of selfishness; the 
second, seek from labor and economy the resources 
not given them by birth. By the power of thy 
grace and the zeal of thy ministers, grant that 
the upper and lower classes may meet together, at 
least at Easter, at that Divine Banquet served by 
Infinite Charity; and social hatreds shall be extin- 
guished with the evils that give life to them. 



454 The People s Ark. 

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those 
who trespass against us! — What are the most 
flagrant injustices of which we may have to com- 
plain, compared with our revolts against thee, O 
Father, infinitely good, but also infinitely just? 
We accept, then, that condition so light, to which 
thou hast deigned to attach our reconciliation with 
thee; help us to surmount our repugnances and 
to return good for evil. 

Lead its not into temptation ! — Everything here 
below is a temptation, even the good that we do, 
and the victories we gain, if we be so weak as to 
take complacency in them and rob thee of thy 
glory; preserve, then, in us, humility, the founda- 
tion and guardian of all solid virtue. How many 
tempters, how many demons dare to invoke thy 
holy name, and pervert and defile the words of thy 
Gospel, in order to make us desert thy Church 
and to drag us under their power ! Confound the 
designs of those evil beasts, and abandon not to 
them the souls whose salvation has cost thee so 
dear.* 

But deliver us fi'om evil, Amen! — Yes, Lord, 
make us understand well, that disobedience to 
thy law is the source of all our evils, that hell is 
only the work of sin, or rather, sin itself, arrived at 
its last and eternal consequences. By it, inspire 
us with a sovereign horror of everything which 
can give death to our soul. 

To this prayer let us add another, which will 
cause it to ascend more quickly to the throne of 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

* Psalm lxxiii. 19. 



Conclusion. 455 

When one wishes to be heard by a father or a 
sovereign, yet has reason to believe that he is not 
in favor with him, what does he do? He addresses 
himself to the mother or the queen, and if these 
two pleaders charge themselves with the request, 
he no longer doubts of success. Well, my friends, 
it is the same in the great family of the children 
of God. We have near the throne of thrones a 
mother, a queen, to whose intercession the divine 
Majesty will make concessions which could not 
be obtained by all the heavenly court. 

Let the dupes of heresy laugh at our confidence 
in Mary and the worship that we render her; 
nothing could be more natural. What do the 
children of Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII., owe 
to Mary? They owe her Christ; here Lutheran, 
there Calvinist; farther on, Anglican, over whose 
law they have been disputing for three centuries, 
and whom many of their ministers now regard as a 
philosopher. They owe to the Son of the Virgin 
that Bible which, for so long a time, has served to 
divide and desolate Europe. In fine, what is 
Mary in their system? She is the grandmother 
of the Bible religion. Seeing such a shabby grand- 
daughter, what opinion, do you think, they could 
entertain of the grandmother ? The worship of 
Mary would be in the Protestant worship, only 
another proof of its absurdity. 

But we who have the happiness of professing 
that Catholic, apostolic, and Roman religion, which, 
from the Ascension of Christ until now, has never 
ceased to labor and suffer for the enfranchisement 
of the human race; we, the children of that Church, 



456 The Peoples Ark. 

who, by the devotion of her martyrs, has destroyed 
successively two states of barbarism in Europe, 
and who still preserves all that there is amongst us 
of civilizing knowledge and virtue; we who always 
see falling from three or four hundred thousand 
pulpits that word of Jesus Christ which all past 
ages have received with faith, and which still 
nourishes two hundred millions of our brethren in 
religion; we who adore Jesus Christ present on our 
altars, there ever offering Himself to His Father 
as our victim, and incorporating us w 7 ith His flesh, 
His blood, His soul, His divinity; how could we 
forget the Mother to whom we owe the Author 
of so many benefits? How ungrateful would be 
the Catholic who should neglect to render to Mary 
the homages and benedictions due to her on so 
many titles, and which the Holy Ghost Himself 
claimed by the mouth of His glorious spouse, when 
He made her say, nearly nineteen hundred years 
ago, " Henceforth all generations shall call me 
blessed!"* Let us then address to her, with the 
most filial veneration and confidence, that short 
prayer, which is also, in a great part, the work of 
the Spirit of God.f 

Hail Mary, full of grace ! — Through you, in 
effect, O glorious Mother of Him who is the Truth 
and the Life, the very ocean of graces is shed on 
this earth, devastated by the infernal breath of 
error and death. 

The Lord is with thee / — Yes, the Eternal Word, 
the Creator and Conservator of all beings, before 



* St. Luke i. 48. f Ibid. 28. 42. 



Conclusion. 457 

whom the universality of worlds is as a grain of 
dust, willed to be enclosed within thy womb, and 
to receive of thee that human nature which He 
will never abandon. Therefore, thy name, indis- 
solubly united to that of the Most High, shall be 
eternally dear to the adorers of your Son. 

Blessed art thou amongst women! — In exalting 
thee above all mothers, inasmuch as the God-man 
is above the greatest men, Eternal Wisdom, who 
proportions graces to the functions, has then 
given thee a heart whose tenderness surpasses 
that of all maternal hearts. Mother of the God 
of Charity, who, from the height of His cross con- 
fided us to thy love, grant, by the power of thy 
prayers, that the eternal benediction, conceived in 
thy womb, may be spread over all human genera- 
tions. May the unfortunate children of Eve, who 
are still buried in the sleep of error, be finally 
united to us, to salute thee with the beautiful title 
of " Mother of the living." 

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus ! — 
Alas ! for the number of Christians, more or less 
great, who bless Him and apply themselves to 
make Him known and blessed, how many wretches 
are there who ignore and delight in ignoring Him ! 
How many monsters who hate Him, and labor to 
render Him odious in His faith, in His sacraments, 
in His Church and His ministers ? What would 
become of us, O Mother of mercies and refuge of 
sinners, if against this deluge of frightful blasphe- 
mies, of unheard-of impieties and obscenities, we 
had not the blood of thy Son, which is thy blood, 
the protection of thy prayers, and also the works 



458 The Peoples Ark. 

of sanctity which thou dost never allow to lan- 
guish among those who honor thee ! 

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for tcs poor 
sinners, now, and at the hour of our death, Amen. 
—Yes, divine Mother, exercise the irresistible 
power given thee by this incomparable title, which 
thou hast purchased by incomparable sacrifices 
and sorrows; exercise it to appease the justice 
due to each one of us and to a society fearfully 
guilty. If the chastisement be inevitable, sweeten 
it, render it salutary, and obtain for each and every 
one of us the grace of all graces, that of a happy 
death. 

I have done. If you draw some fruit from these 
Entertainments, bless the Father of lights, and say 
a Pater and Ave for the poor instrument which it 
has pleased Him to employ, to the end that Plato 
Punchinello, when touching on the threshold of 
a blessed eternity, may not hear the overwhelming 
response : — There is no place here for the prophet 
who has known his mission yet has so badly 
accomplished it! 




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he Year of Mary; or 5 The True Servant of 
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Well has the Magnificat said, "all generations s>\all call me blessed;" all 
times, and in all lands, wherever the symbol, upon which her Divine Son 
lansomed a wicked and undeserving world with his excruciating sufferings and 
death : has a votary, her name, spotiess and beautiful, shall be pronounced with 
reverence, and her protection implored. 

The tome before us is a collection of the honors paid to Mary by the great 
and good of all lands ; by those who, with the diadem of earthly grandeur 
adorning their brows, and vexed political commonwealths to guard and pacify, 
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Buy the book. Eead one or two pages. We promise a feast, a desire to read 
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4 Published by Peter P. Cunningham, 

to Mary of the twelve months of the year, in reference to her virtues ; alsa t 
method of using certain of the Exercises by a way of devotion for the "Month 
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both interesting and advantageous to the true servant of Mary, and those wh$ 
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" Baltimore, April 6, 1865. 

" We willingly unite with the Ordinary of Philadelphia and the Metropolitan 
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"M. J. SPALDING, 

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This work meets a want long ungratified. The devotional Exercises which 
make up the book are ingeniously arranged in reference, 1st, to each year of the 
Blessed Virgin's long residence on earth ; 2d, to every Sunday and festival 
throughout the year. The Exercises are therefore seventy-two in number, cor- 
responding to the generally received belief of the duration of her terrestrial life. 

The First Exercise is thus appropriated to the Immaculate Conception, and 
may be used both for the 8th of December and for the first day of the year. 
The seventy-second celebrates the Assumption, and may be profitably read on 
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as regards herself and her relations with man. It lays down the rules by 
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ought to be actuated when we pay her our homage, or invoke her assistance. 

"The Year of Mary" contains seventy-two Exercises, in accordance with the 
received opinion of the Church that the Blessed Virgin lived that number of 
years on earth. In these instructions, the reader shall learn her life, her pre- 
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The above is one of the most interesting works which has been issued for dome 
time from the Catholic press in this country. The life and martyrdom of Paint 
Cecilia, is itself, one of the moi beautiful chapters in the history of the Church. . 
The account of it by Guerange? is most touching. It combines all the spright* 
liness of romance, with the solid truth of history. The author is one of the 
most learned archaeologists that has appeared in this century, and is well known 
for many learned works. In connection with the life of St. Cecilia, he gives a 
graphic account of the state of the Church at the time of the persecutions undei 
the Roman Emperors. There is a beautiful description of the catacombs and of 
the usages of the Christains in paying honor to the martyrs. In reading his work 
we seem to be transferred to tneir days. The character of St. Cecilia is drawn 
out in the most vivid colors, though the account is almost entirely taken from 
the ancient Acts, the authenticity of which is. abiy vindicated by tha learned 
author. He then gives an account of the Church, built at her own request on 
the spot where she suffered. This goes over a period of over sixteen hundred 
years. It has been, du ring all that time, one of the most clearly cherished sanctu- 
aries of Rome. The incidental accounts of various matters connected with the 
history of the Saint and her Church, are themselves sufficient to give great inter- 
est to the volume, we hardly know which to admire most in this work — the 
information imparted on many most interesting topics, the healthy tone of the 
work, so well calculated to enliven faith, and cherish a devout spirit, or the 
beauty of the style of the author who nas weaved the whole into so interesting . 
a narrative, that no romance can vie with this truthful account of the. patroness 
of song. — Baltimore Catholic Mirror. 

We are glad to see that the American public have been favored with this very 
interesting work. While the name of the author is a guarantee for historical 
accuracy, and learned research, the period of which it treats is one of great in- 
terest to the Catholic. In these pages one can learn the manners and customs of 
the early Christians, and their sufferings, and gain no little insight into their 
daily life. The devotion to the Saints is becoming daily more practical, and we 
are glao to see revived the memory of the ancient heroes and heroines whom the 
Church has honored in a special manner. The mechanical execution of the 
American edition is very good. — Catholic Standard. 

We cannot sufficiently admire and commend to the attention of our readers, 
young and old, this delightful work. The tenderness and exquisite refinement 
and purity which surround, like a veil, the character of tne loveJy St. Cecilia, 
ierve to throw into stronger relief the unfaltering courage by which she won the 
crown of martyrdom. The author has made use of all the authentic and import- 
ant details connected with the life and death of the Saint, following the most 
approved authorities. The discoveries of her tomb in the ninth and sixteenth 
•enturies form not the least interesting portion of the work, and the description 
of the church, which was once her dwelling and the witness of her sufferings and 
triumphs, brings those scenes so vividly before us that Cecilia seems to belong 
as much to our own day as to tke period when young, beautiful, wealthy ana 
accomplished, the virgin bride of the noble Valerian laid down her life for thf 
martyr's crown of faith. — 2f Y. Tablet. 



8 Published bj Peter F. Cunningham, 



Mr- Cunningham, of Philadelphia, has earned a new claim on our gratitu*le by 
publishing the LIFE OF SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR. Ih* 
Acts of her martyrdom are a monument of the wonderful ways of Gcd, and » mosl 
sweet record oi Cnristian heroism, heavenly love, and prodigious consvancy. 
Her ver.y name has inspired Christianity for fifteen centuries, with courage, and 
the noblest aspirations. The work is a translation from the French of prosper 
Gfcieranger. We have had only time to read the title, preface, and a few pagei 
before going to press. But we can say this much, that it was a very happj 
thought to undertake this translation, and we know of no other book w* should 
like to see in tne handa of Catholics so much as the LIFE OF SAINT CECiLI £.. 
VIRGIN AND MARTYR.— Boston Pitot. 

Mr. Peter F. Cunningham has just brought out, in very a -inirable style, the 
1 Life of St. Ceciiia," from the French of the celebrated Dom. Gueranger. It 
is difficult to fina a more delightful volume than this. Its subject is cue of 
the most attractive in all the annals of the Church; and its author one of the 
most pious an! gifted of modern French writers : the result is one of the most 
charming contributions ever made to Catholic literature. As intimated the 
publisher has done his part in printing, in paper, and in binding. We re turn 
him thanks for a copy. — Philadelphia Unicerae, Oct. 6. 

This is a most interesting volume, truer than history and stranger than fic- 
tion. The author does not oonfine himself to the details of the Saint's life and 
martyrdom, but describes, with the faithfulness and minuteness of an antiquary s 
the wonders of Imperial and Christian Rome--the catacombs, the basilicas, the 
manners of the times, the persecutions of the Christians, etc. The book is 
handsomely got up, and enriched with a portrait of St. Cecilia seated at hei 
harp.— JUT. Y. Met. Record. 

"We have received this beautiful and very interesting life of one of the most 
beautiful Saints of the Church. The reading public ought to be much obliged 
to the Publisher for giving them such a work. It abounds in the sublimest 
sentiments of divine love and human devotion, such as Catholics would expect 
from the life of such a Saint ; and at the same time portrays the combat of rising 
Christianity and decaying paganism in the livelist colors. Such works as thia 
form the proper staple of reading for all who desire to become acquainted with 
the period to which it refers, ana who cannot afford to purchase or peruse the 
more profound works of our Historians.— Western N. Y. Catholic. 

The name of the learned and religious Abbot of Solesmes Dom. Gueranger, 
was long since made familiar and pleasant to us, in the pages of Chevalier 
Bonnetty's learned periodical, the Annales de Philosophie Clmtienne, pub- 
lished in Paris. In the pages of his " Life of St. Cecilia"— which we ha\e not 
met with in the French, — we have the same high talent devoted to other than 
liturgic themes. This is an admirable volume, well translated. The quiet 
style in which the story is told of the great honor with which Catholic ages 
have crowned St. Cecilia, is charming. — JN. Y. Freeman's Journal. 



ife of St. Agnes of Rome, Virgin and Martyr. 

Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 
1 vol. 18mo., neatly bound in cloth, with a beautiful steel plate Pois 
trait of the " Youthful Martyr of Rome." 

Price » • 50 e*nts» 

lT-fi.an's Contract with God in Baptism. 

Translated fr >m the French by Eev. J. M. Cullen. 1 vol., 18m o. 

Price- -«•• <••< • 5° oe » t * 



L 



\f 



Published by Peter F. Cunningham, 9 

Ife of St. AJoysius GoMsnga, 

Of flae Society of Jesus. 

Edited by Edward llealy Thompson. Published with the approbation of thi 
R-. Rev Bishop oj Philadelphia. 1 vol., 12nio., neat cloth, beveled, $1.50 
Cloth, Gilt, $2.00. 

45F* Tbia is the best life of the Saint yet published in tt 3 English lacgaag* 
and should bo read by both the young and old. 

lie liife of St. Stanislas Kostka of ike Society 

of Jesus. 

By Edward Healy Thompson, A.M. 

Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia- 

lvol. 12mo. Cloth extra beveled .' $1 50 

Cloth full ed^es. $2.00 

lie Life of Blessed Jolm Berciimans 

of tlie Society of Jesus, 

Translated from the French. With an appendix, giving an account of 
the miracles after death, which have been approved by the Holy See. 
From the Italian of Father Borgo, S. J. Published with the approbation 
of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 vol. 12mo. 

Price— In cloth $1.50 

In cloth, gilt edge * 2.00 

The Society of Jesus, laboring in all things for the " Greater glory of God," 
fass accomplished, if not more, as much, towards that pious object, as ever did 
any Institution of our holy religion. Actuated by that sublime and single 
motive, it has given the world as brilliant scholars, historians and men of 
science in all departments, as have ever yet adorned its annals. Nor is this by 
•any means its greatest boast ; it is what has been achieved by the Society in the 
advancement of Catholicity and sanctity, that makes the brightest gem in ita 
coronet. It is in that, that it is most precious in the sight of the angels of God ; 
it is for that its children will sing with them a new canticle on high. It has 
poopled heaven with a host of sainted choristers, many of them endowed with 
a worid-wide fame for sanctity, and many, like Blessed Berchmans 'laown to 
bGt few beyond the pale of her order. This saintly youth, like St. Aloysi&p 
and St. Stanislaus, died young, but a model of that true wisdom which neve* 
loses sight of the end for which man is created. The work before us beauti- 
fully describes the virtues, and the exemplary life and practices of this piou.8 
youth ; and is richly entitled to a place in every Catholic library. — Catholic 
Mirror. 

Mr. P. F. Cunningham, of Philadelphia, may well rejoice, in his Catholic 
teart, for having given us this work, the perusal of which must needs be the 
SGurce cf immense good. No be ter work can b3 placed in the hands of Ee- 
lig'.ons novices Perhaps no other book has fired those privileged souls with 
more fervid aspirations towards attaining the perfection proper of their reli- 
gious professions. A perfect pattern is placed before them, and whilst th« 
.^srt s drawn towards it with admiring love, the reader cannot allege any 
honest c^use whereby to excuse himself from following the noble example 
placed before him. Blessed Berchmans teaches, by his own life, that perfec- 
tion is to be attained n the fa, thful and conscientious discharge of the duties o/ 
one'- daily life, whatever its circumstances may be. An excellent, mosr ey- 
•e.'ieut took this will also prove for socialists —Boston Pilot. 



10 Published by Peter F. Caiumgham, 



1 he Sign of the Cross in the Nineteenth Century. 

£y Mgr. G-aume, Prothonotary Apostolic. 
With the Brief of his Holiness Pope Pius IX. Translated from the French 
by A Daughter of St. Joseph. Published with the approbation of the Riqht Rev. 
Bishop of Philadelphia. 

lvol. 12mo. Cloth. Extra beveled. Price $1.50 

Gilt edge $2.00 

I he Life of St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor, and 
Doctor of the Church. 

By P. E. Moriarty, D.D., Ex-Assistant General, O. S. A. 
; Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadel- 

phia. 1 vol. 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled, and gilt centre $1 50 

Cloth, gilt edge „ 2 00 



T 



T 



lie Life of St. Charles Borromeo. 

By Edward Healey Thompson. 

Published with the approbation of the Eight Rev. Bishop of 
Philadelphia. 1 vol. 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

44 '« giltedge 2 CC 

lie Sodalist's Friend. A Beautiful Collec- 
tion of Meditations and Prayers. 

Compiled and translated from approved sources, for the use of member* 
and leaders of confraternities, lvol. ISmo., neatly bound. 

Price— In cloth 80 cents. 

Roan embossed $1.00 

Embossed gilt 1.50 

Full gilt edges and sides 2.00 

Turkey, superior extra 3.00 

lie Montli of tlie Sacred Heart* 

Arranged for each day of the month of June. Containing also the Arcb 
Confraternity of Sacred Heart, and Father Borgo's Novena to the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus. With the appiobation of the Rigid Rev. Bishop oj 
Philadelphia. 1 neat vol. 24hk Cloth, gilt back. 

V*" j O^. -A wrote 



29 South "Tenth Street, Philadelphia. 11 



T 



lie itlontn of 8*. Josepli. 

Arranged for each d?.y of the month of March. Frcm the French of th« 
Kev. Father Huguet, of the "Society of St. Mary." Published with the 
approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 neat vol. 
ISmo. Cloth, gilt back. 

Price 50 cents. 

An attentive perusal » f this little work will prove, with a .sincere utterance of 
th<i prayers contained therein, a powerful means to reform one's life. Let us 
gee ure the friendship and intercession of St. Joseph. He is the foster-father of 
our Saviour. He can say a good word for us, indeed. 0, the beauty of Catholic 
devotions ! how its practices, when in direct connection with the life and teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ, fill the soul with happiness and hope! — Boston Pilot. 

This will be found to be an interesting book to all the children of Mary, and 
the lovers of her pure, saintly, and glorious spouse, St. Joseph. It is a good 
companion to the lovely "Month of May." — New York Tablet. 



T 



T 



lie Little Cilices. 

Translated from the French by the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. Contain- 
ing the Little Offices of the Sacred Heart, Holy Ghost, Immaculate Con- 
ception, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, Most Holy Heart of Mary, Holy 
Angel Guardian, St. Joseph, St. Louis de Gonzaga, St. Stanislaus, St 
Jude, Apostle. To which is added a Devout Method of Hearing Mass. 
Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 
1 vol. ISmo. Neatly bound. 

Price • ~ 50 cents. 

lie Religious Soul Elevated to Perfection, 
by tlie Exercises of an Interior Life. 

From the French of the Abbe Baudrand, author of "The Elevation of 
Soul." 1vol. ISmo. 

Price €£ cents. 

a Mere de I>ieu. 

A beautiful and very edifying work on the Glories and Virtues of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God ; from the Italian of Father Alphonse 
Capecelatro, of the Oratory of Naples, with an Introductory Letter of 
Father Gratry, of the Paris Oratory. Published with the approbation of 
the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 neat vol. 18mo. Cloth. 

Price 5C cents. 



he Roman Catacombs; or, Some account 
of 111 e Burial Places of tlie Early Cnris- 
tians in Home. 

By Rev. J. Spencer Xorthcoate, M. A , wi:h Maps and various Illustra- 
tions. Published with the approbation of the Right Rev Bishop nf Phila- 
delphia. 
1 vol., 16mo., neatly bound in cloth gil . back. 

Price 31.00 



19 Published by Peter F. Cunningham, 

JUetters Addressed to a Protestant Friend, 

By a Catholic Priest. With a Preface by the Right Rev. Bishop BeCKer. 
1 vol. 12mo. Cloth extra beveled • $1.21 

harity and Truth; or, Catholics not un- 
charitable in saying that None are 
Saved ont of the Catholic Church. 

By the Hev. Edward Eawarden. 

Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia, 
i toI. 12mo. 

Price— Neatly bound in cloth $1.25 

T^ this book, the learned and earnest author discusses a question of vital im- 
portance to all, viz.: Is there salvation out of the Catholic Communion? At 
the present moment, when the strongest proof of Christianity, in the popular 
opinion, is a belief that every road leads to heaven, and that every man who 
lives a moral life is sure to be saved, the very title of this book will prate 
harshly on many ears. To such we w_>uld say— Read the work, and learn rtat 
" a charitable judgment may be very unfavorable, and a favorable judgmeat 
may be very uncharitable " "Charity and Truth" is the work of one of the 
ablest controversialists and most learned theologians of the Catholic Church in 
England. The method adopted in "Charity and Truth'' is the catechetical, and 
to help the memory the questions are pet in large characters at the top of each 
page. In the preface, the Reverend reviewer takes up and disposes of sx 
vulgar errors, — 1st. That it is charity to suppose all men saved whose life is 
morally honest. 2d. That the infinite goodness of God will not suffer the 
greater part of mankind to perish. 3d. That it is charity to believe the Jews 
and Turks are saved. 4th. That if I judge more favorably of the salvation of 
another man than he does of mine, I am the more charitable of the two. 5th. 
That, setting all other considerations apart, if Protestants judge more favor- 
ably of the salvation of Catholics than Catholics do of theirs, Protestants are 
on the more charitable side. 6th. That he is uncharitable whoever supposes 
that none are saved in any other religion unless they are excused by inviuci- 
ble ignorance. — Met. Record. 

We owe Mr. Cunningham an apology for not having noticed this work ere 
this ; and we should have done it more readily, as we hail with utmost pleasure 
the republication of one of those works written by the uncompromising cham- 
pions of the Church during the hottest days of persecution and Catholic disa- 
bilities in England. Wc have often wished that some of the learned professors 
of the illustrious College of Georgetown would select from among the numerous 
collection they have of books written by English missionaries during the first 
two centuries of persecution in England, some such work as "Charity and 
Truth, " and republish them in this country. These works will not please, of 
course, our milk and water Catholics. But, after all, they are the real kind of 
works we need. It is high time that we should take the aggressive. We cava 
put up long enough with Protestant attacks. We owe nothing to Protestants. 
We have allowed them to say all kind of things to us. We -have received w'.Ln 
thanks the benign condescension with which they grant us the merit of there 
being some good people among the Catholics, and that some bishops and priests 
are clever, in spite of their being Catholics. We have bowed so low as to kiss 
the right hand that has patted us on the head, whle the left was lifting its 
thumb to the nose of the smiling but double-hearted ca*esser. It is high time, we 
say, that we should do away with this sycophancy. It is high time that war 
was carried to the heart of the enemy's country. Hence we are thankful to the 
American editor of this work. Let Catholics buy it, read it, and then give it 
to their Protestant acquaintances.— Boston Pilot. 



B 



CAT HOLIC T ALES. 

eecii Bliilf. A Tale ©f the South Before the 
War. 

By Faniiie Warner. 

lvol. 12mo. Cloth extra beveled $1.50 

Cloth gilt edge „.. . . „^„fc.0C 

FerncIMTe. 

A Catholic Talo of great merit 1 volume l/'mo. 

Price— CI jth, extra beveled $i 50 

Cloth, gilt edges. . , ....... 2 00 

A lie j?1ob targes Legacy, 

A Charming Catholic Tale, by Florence McGoamb. (Miss Meline, of Washing' 
tea,) 1 volume, small 12mc. 6 

Price— Cloth, extia beveled $1.00 

Cloth, gilt * 1>2 5 

race Morton; or, Tiie Inheritance. 

Anew and beautiful Catholic tale, written by Miss Meaney of Philadelphia. 
1 vol., large lSino., neatly bound in cioth. 

Price $1.00 

This is a pleasing story, instructive as well as amusing, and worth an espe- 
cial place in the library of youthful Catholics. It depicts with rare skill the 
trials and sacrifices which attend the profession of the true Faith, and which 
are so often exacted of us by the fostering solicitude of our Mother the Church. 
—Catholic Mirror. 

A chastely written Catholic tale of American life, which is most pleasantly 
narrated ; and conveys much that is instructive and elevating. — Irish American, 

lie Knout ; a Tale of Poland* 

Translated from the French by Mrs. J. Sadlier. 

1 vol., large 18mo., neatly bound in cloth, gilt back, with frontispiece. 
Price , $1.00 

aura and Anna; or, The Eifeet of Faith 00 
tlie Character. 

A beautiful tale, translated from the French by a. young lady, a Graduate 

of St. Joseph's, Eminittsburg. 

1 vol. 18mo., neatly bound in cloth. 

Price 60 cents 

he Confessors of Connanght; or, Tlie Ten- 
ants of a Lord Bishop. 

A tale of Evictions in Ireland. 8y Miss Meanev, author of "' Grace Mor- 
ton." 
Small 12mo., cloth. 

Price $1.00 

Keard thifc bwk and you will have a feeling knowledge of the sufferings of 
«ur brethren in the Isle of Sainte. — Bcston Pilot. 



L, 



14 Published by Peter F. Cunningham, 

THE "YOUNG CATHOLIC'S LIBRARY.' 



BEAUTIFUL CATHOLIC TALES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



FIRST SERIES. 

6 NEAT 18*10 VOLS., CLOTH, EXTRA, 50 CENTS EACH. 

1. Cottage Evening Tales, for Young People. 

2. Children of the Valley ; or, The Ghost of the Ruins. 

3. Mag Carleton's Story, and The Miller's Daughter. 

4. Fliilip Hartley ; or, A. Boy's Trials and Triumphs. 

5. Count Leslie; or, The Triumphs of Filial Piety. 

6. A Father's Tales of the French Revolution, 



SECOND SERIES. 

6 NEAT 18mo VOLS., CLOTH, EXTRA, 50 CENTS EACH. 

1. Ralph Rerrien. Tales of the French Revolution. 

2. Silver Grange and Fhillipine, Two charming Tales. 

3. Helena Butler. A Story of the Rosary. 

4. Charles and Frederick. By Rev. John P. Donnollon. 

5. The Reau forts, A Story of the Alleghanies. 

6. Lauretta and the Fables. A charming little book. 



THIRD SERIES. 

6 NEAT 18mo VOLS., CLOTH, EXTRA, 50 CENTS EACH. 

1. Conrad and Gertrude. A lovely Swiss Tale. 
#. Three Petitions. A Tale of Poland. 

3. Alice; or, The Rose of the Black Forest. 

4. Carolina; or, Self-Conquest. A Book for Young Girls. 

5. Stories of the Commandments. Eight charming Tales. 

6. The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy. Seven Tales. 



FOURTH SERIES. 

6 NEAT 18MO VOLS., CLOTH, EXTRA, 50 CENTS EACH 

1. Elinor Johnston, A Story of great interest. 

2. The Queen's Daughter; or, the Orphan of La Graoja. 

3. Hetty Homer. By Fanny Warner. . 

4. The Beverly Family. By Hon. Jos. R. Chandler. 

5. Aunt Fanny's Fresent; or, Book of Fairy Talea. 
6". Woodland Coitaye, and Other Tales. 



29 South Tenth Street, Philadelphia. 15 

Hawthorndean; or, Philip Benton's Family. 

A Tale of every day life. 
By Mrs. Clara M. Thompson, 
Author of '• Rectory of Moreland," ; - Chapel of St Mary," <£c. 

1 vol. 12mo. Cloth, extra beveled, and crilt centre ftl 50 

" " " Gilt edges 2 00 

Uineas; or, Rome under Nero. 

By J .M. Villefranche. 

ItoI. 12mo. Cloth. Extra beveled Si. 50 

Gilt edge £2.0Q 

This charming story of the time of Nero— the burning of Rome under thai 
(yrant. the destruction of Jerusalem, and the most cruel persecution of the 
Christians, is of that class of beautiful Christian novels, of which Fabiola was 
ihe first, and is considered one of the best yet written. 



A 



Iphonso; or, the Triumph of Religion. 

1 vol. small 12 ino. neat cloth. Price , Si. 00 

We have the pleasure to announce another of Mr. Cunningham's works, Al- 
phonso, or the Triumph of Religion. It contains everything calculated to instruct 
aad edify at the same time, and we think it a work that will be read with 
g-eat pleasure by ail uur readers. — Spare Hours. 

The scenes of this boot are laid in France, but the moral applies with equal 

force to our own country. The work is intended to show the evil effects of an 
irreligious education, and does so with great force and effect. The tale is from 
the pe;i of a gifted Irish lady, and well worth reading. Those who are sluggish 
in their response to our Most Rev. Archbishop's recent call in behalf of an In- 
dustrial School, should take a lesson from this valuable little book. --Baltimore 
Catholic Mirror. 



A 



History of England, 

For The Young. 



Compiled by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, for the use of theu 
schools in England, and republished for the use of the Catholic Schools in 
the United States. 

1 vol. 12 mo 80 cts 

This is an admirable compendium of English history, deserving a place in all 
our schools. It is well arranged for a class book, having genealogical tables, a 
good index, aud questions for each chapter.— Catholic Mirror. 

This is a most valuable little book, giving just sufficient information to interest 
and attract the young without wearying them with superabundance of dates which 
thev rarely remember, and dry statistics which they never read unless compelled 
to do so, (a ino-t injudicious process.) while by means of excellent genealogical 
and chronological taoles, it furnishes to those disposed to seek it, ample instruc- 
tion, and it will most probably inspire in the mind of an intelligent child, the 
wish to read more extended works. We -nae pleasure in commenaing thii 
• History of England" to the attention of all those interested in providing agree- 
.ble means of improvement to children.— N Y. Tablet. 



16 Published by Peter F. Cunn'ngham. 

PRAYER BOOKS. 

FLOWER GARDEN. 

An admirable small Prayer Book. Contains Morning ana Evening 
Players, Mass Prayers, Ordinary of the Mass, (in Latin and English,) 
Vespers, Forty Hours Devotion, Stations of the Cross, and a great va- 
riety of other'practical devotions, all together forming the most coin* 
plete small Prayer Book yet printed. 1 vol., 32m o. 

No. 1, Neat cloth, variety of nice bright colors 50 45 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edge 80 

3, " " " and clasp 100 

4, " full gilt edges and sides 100 

5, " " " '■ and clasp 125 

FLOWER, GARDEN, 32mo., line edition, printed on the finest quality 

of paper, and made up in the neatest and very best manner : 
No. 6, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt edges, stiff or flexible ?2 50 

7, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt edges, with clasp 2 75 

8, Turkey, super extra, rims and clasp 4 00 

9, Calf, extra, stiff or flexible, very neat 2 75 

10, " " with clasp 3 00 

11, " «• rims and clasp 4 50 

12, Velvet, full ornaments, rims, clasps and ovals... 6 00 

LITTLE FLOWER GARDEN. 

A beautiful miniature Prayer Book. 4Smo. Containing a selection 
of practical devotions, and made up in a variety of beautiful stylea 
of binding, 

No. 1, Neat cloth, variety of plain and bright colors. ..$0 20 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edges 40 

3, '* full gilt edges and sides 50 

4, '* tucks, very neat 60 

5, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt edges 1 50 

6, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, with 

fine gilt clasp 175 

7, Turkey, super extra, rims and clasp 2 50 

8, Calf, extra, red or gilt edges, very neat 1 75 

9, " " " " with clasp 2 00 

10, " " rims and clasp 3 00 

DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR CATHOLICS. 

An admirable small Prayer Book. 32m o., with very large type* 
(English,) good for the short-sighted, and for all who like to read \s itli 
ease, without the necessity of using glasses. 

No. 1, Neat cloth, variety of nice bright cclors $0 45 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edge 80 

3 ? •« " " and clasp 100 

4, " full gilt edges and sides 1 00 

5; « " " " and clasp 126 

6' Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt edges, stiff or flexible 2 50 

7, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt edges, with clasp. 2 75 

8, Turkey, super extra rims and clasp 4 00 

9, Calf, extra, stiff or flexible, very neat 2 75 

10, <4 «• " with clasp 3 00 

XI, " " ** rims and clasp 4 50 

12', Velvet, full ornaments, rims, clasps and ovais... 6 ^ 



29 South TentL Street, Philadelphia. 17 

MANUAL OF DEVOTION. 

An excellent 32mo. Prayer Book, with illustrations of the Mass. 
No. 1. Neat cloth, a variety of plain and bright colors. SO 30 

2, Roan, emboss .id giit edges CO 

3, " ' " and clasp 8J 

4, '« full gilt edges and sides 80 

5, " '• ■' *' and clasp 100 

6, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides 2 50 

7, " " rims and clasp 3 '0 

8, Calf, extra, stiff or flexible, bound very neat 2 75 

9, ;i " * and clasp 3(0 

10, " rims and clasp 4 00 

DAILY EXERCISE. 

A beautiful miniature Prayer Book. 48mo., with illustrations of ih* 
Mass. 

No. 1, Neat cloth a variety of choice colors $0 Z0 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edge u 4) 

3, «' full gilt edge and sides 50 

4, " tucks, very neat 60 

5, Turkey, super extra 1 50 

6, -' " tucks 150 

7, " " rims and clasp 2 50 

8, Calf, extra 1 75 

9, " with clasp 2 co 

10, " rims and clasp 3 00 

The Hymn Book. 

The Hymn-Book— 180th thousand— the mo3t popular little Hymn Book 
ever published. Contains, also, Prayers for the Mass, Prayers for Con* 
fession and Communion, and Serving of Mass. 13 cents each, or $10 per 
hundred ; cloth, 20 cents, or $1 80 per dozen. 

The Gospels. 

For Sundays and Principal Festivals during the year, together with 
the Four Gospels of the Passion for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. 
1 vol. i2mo. Paper cover 10 cts , or per dozen, $L CO. 

Confirmation and Communion Certificates. 

The subscriber has had prepared very beautiful certificates of Conjir- 
maiion ami First Communion, giving also exterior and interior views 
of the Cathedral of Philadelphia. These are the most beautiful certifi- 
cates ever published in this country, and are sold at low rates to the 
Reveren i Clergy and others who buy in quantity. $> 00 per hundred 

Angels' Sodality. 

Manual of the Holy Angels Sodality. Price, in cloth, flexible. $12 50 
per hundred, or $l ;0 per dozen 

Diplomas for Membership of the Angels' Sodality. Beautiful design 
$10' per dozen 

Blessed Virgin's Sodality Diploma. 

A Very B autifvl Diploma for Members of the Modality of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, size oi plate 1.x .o. has just been prepared by the umJ.er* 
Big tied Orders respectfully solicited. The name of the Church dn<l 
title of the Sodality inserted to ord.r. 

Catechisms. 

Butler's large and small Catechisms. The general Catechism of the 
National Council. Tuberviile 8 Catechism, Dr. Doyle's Catechisms, 
Fleury 8 Catechism and The Catholic Christian Instructed Supplied 
Wholesale and Retail And many other Catholic Doctrinal Works. 
Orders respectfully solicited. 

PETER F. CUNNINGHAM & SON, 

Publishers 29 S. Tenth St, Phila. 



18 Published by Peter F. Cunningham. 

Meditations on the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

By the Abbe Edward Barthe. Published with the approbation of the 

Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 vol., 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 00 

MESSENGER SERIES. 

[Attention is respectfully called to this series of beautiful works, originally 
prepared for the Messenger of the Sacred Heart, and now offered to the public 
in handsome 12mo vols. We recommend ever} Catholic family to procure 
the " Messenger Series."] 



1. L 



s 



eandro; or, The Sign of the Cross. 

A beautiful Catholic Tale. 1 vol.. 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled |1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 OC 



lT 



imon Peter and Simon Magus. 

A Legend of the early days of Christianity in Rome. By Rev. John 

Joseph Franco, S. J. 1 vol., l^mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled Si 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 00 



3. J_he Acts of the Early Martyrs. 



By the Rev. J. A. M. Fastre, S. J. First series. 1 vol., 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt. 2 00 

4. 1 he Acts of the Early Martyrs. 

By the Rev. J. A M. Fastre, S. J. Second Sertes. ♦ vol., 12 mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled- » $1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 00 

5. Xhe Acts of the Early Martyrs. 

By the Rev. J. A. M. Fastre, Third Series. 1 vol., 12mo. 

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M 



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arion Howard; or, Trials and Triumphs, 

1 vol. 12mo. Cloth, extra beveled .. M |2 00 

Cloth, gilt edge M 2 50 



ivine Life of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Being an abridgment of the "Mystical City op God." 

By Ven. Mary of Jesus of Asreda. 

J vol. 12mo. Cloth, extra beveled ^ $2 00 

Cloth, gilt edge _ 2 50 



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